While this test actually was published earlier this year, up until now EVO hadn ‘t allowed it to pop-up on their site. So if you ‘re not an EVO subscriber (shameful) you can now read the full review by Chris Harris at EVO.co.uk. However be warned, Harris is not a huge fan of the GTS as compared with the Porsche GT3. Here ‘s a quick excerpt:

>It is a very different machine to the base M3, or even the Competition Pack version. The geometry changes have wrought much more steering weight and feel, there’s less understeer and less ride comfort. The dampers and ride-height are adjustable too, so nothing is definitive. As presented, it lacks the suppleness of a GT3 RS, but is similar to the Porsche in that its overall road manners are so palatable that each glance in the rear-view mirror comes as a slight shock: it reminds you of the deleted rear seats and bolt-in roll-cage.

But the 3.0 CSL is another story.

>I’m surprised how pokey it feels today. The immediacy of the throttle adds to the impression of speed, but it has heaps of torque (215lb ft) and four gear ratios that might have been designed for cross-county adventures in 2011. Within a few miles, I’m smitten. Like anything old and unassisted, the car is only as good as your inputs, and you quickly focus your attentions on the areas where you can make the most difference – matching revs on each downshift and, moving up through the gearbox, hanging just a few extra mm of throttle to make the clutch re-engage smoothly. The shift exposes all that is wrong about modern, short-throw manual changes: there’s no obstruction, just a lever that requires shoulder movement and whose lengthy action reminds us that the longer the shift, the longer you have to enjoy the sensation.

A lot it mirrors our own review of the CSL from earlier this year. In fact it ‘s a review that I called my favorite moment of 2011 in our most recent BimmerCast.

You can read the entire EVO review here.