Review: This BMW M4 Competition by CarBahn Defines OEM+
If you want to make the case that the last thing a BMW M4 Competition needs is more performance, you won’t struggle to find others who agree. The latest G82 generation model and its G80 M3 sibling push the concept of a car punching above its weight class to extremes.
A 503-horsepower straight six makes world-beating acceleration the norm, while an optional all-wheel drive system all but assures backroad dominance. For those who want more, BMW answered the question before you asked it, first with the stripped-out M4 CSL and then with the spiced-up M4 and M3 CS. What, then, is there left to improve?
CarBahn, the latest venture by legendary tuner, racer, and engine builder Steve Dinan, believes it found a compelling counterargument in the form of its $20,599 CB3 Signature Package.
Before the first miles come, there’s good reason to expect greatness from this car. While CarBahn isn’t yet a household name, Dinan certainly is, with his strong reputation for reputation for modifying and racing cars stretching back to the early 80s. Although he’s no longer part of the company that bears his name, Dinan’s philosophy of upgrading cars to OEM or better standards while matching the factory warranty endures.
Understanding that mindset is crucial to grasp what this car is ultimately going for. At first, when you read that this BMW M4 Competition no longer produces the stock 503-hp figure but instead a McLaren 720S-beating 735 hp, it would be easy to assume that CarBahn dials up power beyond factory limits and calls it a day.
The opposite is true. The surge in performance begins with custom engine software, also boosting its torque output to 668 pound-feet, an upgraded heat exchanger, and a new cold air intake to ensure this two-door remains as reliable as possible. The final piece to CarBahn’s Stage 2 Power Package is a new stainless steel exhaust. However, this tester swaps it out in favor of lighter pipes made of titanium for $3,500.
While an extra 232 hp and 189 lb-ft represent a leap forward performance-wise, these aren’t the most impactful upgrades bolted to this all-wheel-drive-equipped M4.
For that, you’ll have to turn to its reworked suspension. The first item on the list is what the tuner calls a “coilover kit,” but it isn’t so in the traditional sense that it replaces both the spring and damper. Instead, it adds height-adjustable springs while retaining the stock damper, ensuring that the versatility of the factory suspension modes remains. However, CarBahn crafted adjustable bump stops to support it, which might initially seem relatively minor but significantly impacts ride quality.
As the spring compresses, these bump stops can absorb excess energy produced by road imperfections, limiting the roughness felt in the cabin. This makes this BMW M4 Competition firmer while improving its ability to remain perfectly settled on a bumpy road. It decision also results in a more compliant ride for daily use.
Alongside the coilover kit, CarBahn’s CB3 Signature Package includes adjustable anti-roll bars, Monoball bushings up front, and upgraded toe links in the rear. A five-point carbon strut brace improves chassis rigidity, while stainless steel brake lines support consistent performance while slightly firming up the pedal. It’s worth noting, however, that the tuner optioned this particular M4 from new with a set of $8,150 carbon ceramic brakes.
The most expensive CarBahn option fitted to this car is one you shouldn’t skip. For $4,000, it gains a widened set of 20-inch forged wheels, seen here in a dark bronze finish, and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R rubber. This car’s track broadens thanks to tires that measure 295/30 up front and 305/30 in the rear.
Cosmetically, the Signature Package loads this car’s exterior with carbon fiber goodies. It starts beneath the hood with an engine cover, works its way out to a motorsport-inspired grille, and finishes off with a complete body kit made of the lightweight material. The result is a two-door with an aesthetic and a stance far more aggressive than anything BMW would ever mass-produce.
Now that you know all the details, how effective are they?
The answer is that they’re nothing short of transformative. On a winding back road, you’ll feel the effects long before you pick up the pace. While a stock BMW M4 Competition incorporates an ultra-quick steering rack in hopes of making you think that this nearly 4,000-pound two-door is lighter and more agile than it is, there’s still a split-second delay as its heft catches up.
This isn’t the case in the M4 by CarBahn. Thanks to its upgraded suspension and wider tires, this two door changes direction without hesitation. With a sharpened response from the front end, tackling a winding road now feels like a much more cohesive and seamless experience. You get exactly what you ask of it the moment you turn the wheel.
While these updates don’t unmute BMW’s utterly dead electric power steering system, you get slightly more weight as you load up in the bends, while feedback from the chassis is improved. Braking performance is fantastic, but then what would you expect from a car wearing a nearly five-figure set of carbon ceramics?
It helps that you’re lugging around less weight, too, with CarBahn’s forged wheels and titanium exhaust shaving a few pounds. According to CarBahn, with those options fitted alongside BMW’s carbon ceramics and carbon seats, this car weighs 200 fewer pounds than a base xDrive-equipped M4 Competition.
Even as you pick up your pace, this BMW M4 Competition remains effortlessly composed in both open and tight bends. Even large bumps struggle to unsettle it as it feels significantly more hunkered down than a factory car would. Yet, despite feeling more planted, it never translates road harshness to its occupants, thanks partly to its new bump stops.
The result is a car that moves perfectly instep with its driver while delivering a driving experience more focused on providing fun than outright performance.
That said, its extra 232 horses are certainly all accounted for. Yet despite it accelerating more ferociously than a stock car, it’s never overwhelming. Thanks to its xDrive system, it doesn’t struggle for traction. It remains perfectly composed even as you route the power exclusively to its rear wheels.
Its titanium exhaust allows its 3.0-liter inline-six to be far more vocal but never excessively on the highway or during everyday commuting. Still, it’s limited by the fact that BMW’s raspy S58 engine is far from its best sounding.
More magic can be found as you turn off the twisty road and assign this BMW M4 Competition daily driving duties. Despite its massive 295-width front tires, it doesn’t tram line, nor is the in-cabin noise excessive. However, the plushness felt on a bumpy road remains, significantly increasing this car’s comfort and versatility. While you’ll get a slight hint of fender and tire contact while maneuvering at full lock, it quiets down the second you turn the wheel back.
While the CB3 Signature Package costs $20,599, this tester sports the aforementioned $3,500 titanium exhaust system, a $4,000 wheel and tire package, and a $1,500 factory-matching four-year/50,000-mile warranty.
The M4 Competition xDrive used for this build costs $98,145 thanks to extras such as its $8,150 carbon ceramics and $3,800 m carbon bucket seats. This brings the total cost up to $127,744. that’sThat’s comparable to the M4 CS’ $124,675 base price for context.
To answer the original question, this BMW M4 Competition by CarBahn isn’t designed to find fault and improve an otherwise fantastic sports car. That’s the route chosen by the CS and CSL models, effectively amplifying the stock experience with a more hardcore approach.
Instead, Steve Dinan employs masterful tuning work to offer us something different. This M4 doesn’t fall anywhere within the CS to CSL binary. It modifies enough to stand on its own. It doesn’t make the case that this car needs any additional performance; it instead asks: “What if we not only give you more, but we make it more approachable, enjoyable, and daily usable?” as it shows, this is the question truly worth asking.
Tags: Featured
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Review: The Porsche 718 Spyder RS Is The Ultimate Swan Song
by Gabriel Vega
in Reviews
The arrival of the GT4 RS meant it was only a matter of time. Porsche had done what it had never before; it stuffed the 911 GT3’s 9,000-rpm naturally aspirated flat-six into a 718 Cayman. The result was dramatic.
Never mind its 493-horsepower output, an extra 79 hp over the GT4, the RS gained a close-ratioed seven-speed PDK, weight-saving carbon components, and beefed-up aero pieces complete with a swan-neck rear wing. Its intakes sat just behind your head, ensuring no conversation, tune, or lingering thought could come between you and its blaring note.
It was inevitable then that the Porsche 718 Spyder RS would come next, only that it didn’t arrive as expected. While it has the same 4.0-liter engine bolted to its back, an identical PDK, and most of the GT4 RS’ aero, its roadster form meant it could never be a fully dedicated track car.
Porsche factored this in from the start of its development, designing the most extreme Boxster ever solely as a road car. As such, you’ll find softer suspension hiding beneath its arches, a modest ducktail instead of a towering wing, and a two-piece top you’ll have to break down and stow yourself.
Most importantly, its engine intakes remain tucked behind your ears, now unmuffled by metal or glass. It doesn’t sing. It transitions from a guttural bassy note at low revs to a deafening shriek as the needle on its tach approaches its 9,000 rpm redline. Yet even then, as your ears ring and your head pounds, the feeling behind the wheel is bittersweet.
The Porsche 718 Spyder RS arrives at a crucial moment for the German carmaker and the broader sports car scene. Later this year, it will go out of production, as will all gas-powered Cayman and Boxster models, with a yet-to-be-announced electric successor expected to debut in the coming months. The fear is, of course, that it will swell in size and weight as a result of its need to make room for a battery pack.
It’s still far too early to get on the soapbox, though. If the Taycan has taught us anything, the folks at Stuttgart know how to build a thrilling EV. Still, the Spyder RS represents one of the final opportunities you’ll ever have to buy a mid-engined Porsche powered by a high-revving naturally aspirated engine. While the 911 will carry atmospheric aspiration as far as it’ll go, the Spyder RS symbolizes the end of an era.
That’s the bitter, but what about the sweet?
There’s plenty. The experience of driving a Porsche 718 Spyder RS can only be described with superlatives and melodramatic praise. It is among the most thrilling, best-sounding, and finest-driving sports cars of the last decades. It’s the kind of car you can’t live without after you’ve experienced it.
It first draws you in with its steering. Even before you pick up the pace, it chatters with feedback from the surface below. It may not convey as much road texture as a hydraulic setup in older Porsches, but it’s excellent as far as electric power systems are concerned. It’s nicely weighted and loads up well as your speed increases. The Race-Tex wrapped wheel itself is small, paired with a quick rack, resulting in an instant response from the front end.
The RS sits 1.2 inches lower than a standard Boxster while its front and rear tracks widen. Peek beneath its front fenders and you’ll find a pair of MacPherson struts, each with a main and a helper spring like you would in a 991.2-generation 911 GT3 RS.
Although the Spyder gets reduced damper rates to create a more compliant ride, it comes standard with Porsche Active Suspension Management, which allows you to quickly firm things up when needed. Likewise, its ride height, toe, camber, and anti-roll bars are all individually adjustable.
You need not mess with any of it, though. The Porsche 718 Spyder RS perfectly balances comfort and performance for street use. Although still firmer than a Spyder or GTS 4.0, the roofless RS doesn’t crash over bumps like its coupe counterpart nor translate unnecessary harshness to you behind the wheel. Instead, you get the feedback you’d want pulsing through the chassis without the added roughness of driving something mainly track-oriented.
As such, the RS isn’t a car that requires a special occasion or a perfect road to enjoy. While its engine revs to the moon, it’s equally happy to putter around town thanks to its quick-shifting seven-speed PDK. It’s practical, too, retaining the front and rear storage capacity that makes the Boxster a versatile sports car. Even deploying and stowing its two-piece roof becomes second nature after a few attempts. It’s still far from a quick setup should dark clouds begin to loom overhead.
Point it towards your favorite mountain road, open the valves in its exhaust, firm up its shocks, and you’re instantly reminded that it is still the most extreme Boxster ever produced.
Tipping the scales at 3,214 pounds, it’s a featherweight by modern sports car standards. Thanks to its use of carbon fiber front fenders and hood, the RS is 59 lb lighter than a PDK-equipped 718 Spyder. The $12,570 Weissach Package and a set of magnesium wheels cut 22 lb of unsprung weight.
More importantly, the RS feels practically massless on a winding road. Its ultralight wheelset certainly contributes to the feeling. Still, in a space where sportscars often rely on clever tire and suspension tech to disguise their heft, the Spyder RS has nothing to hide.
Despite its softer suspension, there’s no body roll to speak of. The Spyder RS flows through a twisty road with effortless balance, constant feedback, and tremendous speed. The performance of its $8,000 carbon-ceramic brakes is excellent, and they make no unwanted noise around town. The resulting driving experience is cohesive, deeply involved, and thrilling.
Its 911 GT3-sourced 4.0-liter naturally-aspirated flat-six will go down in history as one of the greats. It revs to 9,000 rpm, a full 1,000 rpm more than a 718 Spyder, and produces strong power throughout the rev range.
Flat out, it’ll spring to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds and complete the quarter-mile in 11.3 seconds while maxing out at 191 mph.
Oftentimes, you’ll rocket out of a corner, look down at the tach, and realize the needle is only halfway there to the redline. Contrary to what you might expect from a high-strung engine, the power isn’t hidden away on a top shelf, although getting there is exciting nonetheless.
A blast up a mountain road with the top down is a recipe for the most delightful headache you’ve ever had. The buzzing shriek that comes on as the redline approaches is deafening. It’s unlike any other modern production car in that it isn’t coming from its twin pipes but from its rear-mounted intakes. It’s a noise that’s as authentic as it is loud and will be sorely missed in an electric future.
Still, there’s an elephant in the room, and that is its price. This 2024 model-year tester starts at $163,650, including a $1,650 destination and a $1,300 glass guzzler fee. If you’ve been adding up the optional extras mentioned up to now, this car’s $211,090 as-tested price should come as no shock.
Yet after experiencing it, it’s hard to fault anyone who puts up the money to have one, or even those who pay even higher sums on the second-hand market.
It’s not always immediately apparent that you’re behind the wheel of something special. As counterintuitive as that may sound, it can sometimes take a few hundred miles for a bond to form or a perfect Sunday morning drive on an impeccable winding road before the automotive epiphany comes. In other instances, a car’s greatness can remain hotly contested for decades.
Take the Lamborghini Countach as the ultimate example. It’s been over 50 years since it went into production, and while its status as an automotive icon is not up for debate, you’ll find no shortage of diametrically opposed opinions on whether or not it’s any good to drive. This won’t be the case with the Porsche 718 Spyder RS.
It is the ultimate swan song for Porsche’s mid-engined featherweight and a fitting sendoff for one of the most beloved sports cars in recent decades.
Tags: Featured
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