One to Buy: Golf Yellow 1972 BMW E9 3.0 CSL Series 1
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Having been created with the sole intention of toppling Ford from its position atop the premier Division 1 class in Touring Car racing, the BMW Motorsport-developed E9-based 3.0 CSL did just that during a famous inaugural campaign in 1973.
Despite making its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1971, CSL production didn’t actually start until December 1971. It was then temporarily halted the following July after only 169 first generation cars had been completed, all of which ran a carb-fed 2985cc 178bhp straight six imported from the 3.0 CS.
Production subsequently got underway again in September 1972 (this time with a fuel-injected 3003cc motor) and the all-important 1000th CSL as required for Group 2 homologation was completed in November.
In total, BMW had constructed a combined 1098 examples of the CSL in the aforementioned Series 1 and 2 specifications by the time the model was discontinued in January 1973. Of these, just 169 were to the original 2985cc carb-fed trim, all of which were left-hand drive.
Today, one of these ultra rare first series Coupe Sport Leichts is currently on offer at the Legendary Motorcar Company showroom in Halton Hills, Ontario.
Following completion on April 27th 1972, the car was delivered to its first owner in Italy where it resided until 1982. At this point, the Golf Yellow CSL (one of 55 first series examples completed as such) was exported to the United States where it has resided ever since.
The matching numbers car remains an extremely unmolested example of the scarce CSL in its original form.
