2018 BMW M4 Facelift CS Special Edition Spied, Shows Aggressive Aerodynamics

Earlier this year, we showed you an M4 LCI (that's Life Cycle Impulse in Bimmer language) test car displaying GTS-like parts, such as the wheels and the mean front lip, but things are even clearer now - the prototype you see here was spied at the same time with the "standard" 2018 M4 LCI (set to land next year), with the latter not showing any of the aggressive bits seen here.

Let's get to the juicy visual details

And if the chin of the thing won't grab your attention, the complex hood or the cheeky tail of the coupe will. As for the wheels, this test car only keeps the M4 GTS units for the rear axle. Speaking of which, this tester has 19-inch units up front and 20-inch units at the rear, with the wheels doing a poor job at concealing the splendig carbon-ceramic stopping hardware.

The tech talk

However, from this point on, we're entering speculation territory. The most important rumor has to do with the twin-turbo 3.0-liter straight six under the hood.

Since a similarly-spiced-up M2 was recently spotted testing on the Nurburgring, with "junior" expected to get the current M4's engine, albeit in a 400 hp tune, we can expect the Bavarians to gift the facelifted M4 with extra power, at least in this special edition form.

And since the M4 GTS track toy delivers 500 hp from its water-injected derivative of the S55 inline-six, this is the upper limit. Still, since the upcoming special edition seems to steer clear of the circuit-focus path of the GTS, its output should sit slightly lower.

What's in a name?

As for the CS moniker, this is still a tentative name. The reason behind having such a nameplate expectation is the same as the one discussed in the case of the M2 mentioned above. We think BMW won't turn to the CSL badge that adorner the E46 M3, as the "L" at the end, which stands for lightweight, would require a hefty diet that could reduce the appeal of the machine without increasing performance by that much.

Whether you're a ///M fan drooling over these photos or a Porsche enthusiast curious about what the other Germans are cooking, we'll offer you more info on the matter as soon as we get our keyboards on it.