Every fan of BMW wants to drive an E46 M3 CSL. That car is still deemed as one of the best handling/driving models the Germans ever put out and since it was built in seriously small numbers, actually owning one is a bit of a hassle.
One of the ways you can set it apart from a regular M3 is its carbon fiber roof. Even though we have CFRP roofs of modern-day M cars, back then it was still extremely exotic and expensive to do. Of course, the CSL’s character isn’t defined only by its roof.
It also has thinner windows, no AC or radio and other modifications done throughout the car to make sure the weight is kept in check, in all the right places. After all, you could have a car that is light on its feet but with the weight distributed in all the wrong places, and it wouldn’t help out at all.
Getting back to the story at hand here, a lot of people have tried to reach CSL status by their own means. That includes tuning their M3s to look exactly the same but little did they know that making a CSL from scratch is impossible.
Even so, replacing the standard roof on an E46 M3 with a carbon fiber one is a job that has been done more than once. In the time lapse below, we get to see exactly how much work goes into getting stuff like this done.
As you can notice, you basically need to take nearly the whole car apart, from the windscreen and rear window and even the interior bits. Then you have to cut the sheet metal roof off making sure you don’t touch the reinforcement beams that you're going to use to fit the new roof.
Using industrial strength glue, the carbon fiber roof is then installed, and everything put together. In theory, it sounds complicated but in real life ... it’s even more complicated. Check it out!
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