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Pebble Beach and BMW remember the legendary 3.0CSL

17 August, 2015

For the 2015 edition of Pebble Beach’s Concours d’Elegance, BMW has come up with something very special with the world premiere of the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R — a car that celebrates both the 40th anniversary of BMW in North America and the heady racing success of the BMW 3.0 CSL in 1975.

1975 was the year the Bavarian manufacturer founded BMW of North America — its first official sales company outside Europe. It was also the year in which BMW Motorsport made its debut in motor-racing stateside — in the IMSA series — with a specially made BMW 3.0 CSL. Just a few weeks later, BMW recorded its first historic triumph at the 12 Hours of Sebring. This was followed by a succession of victories, including one at Laguna Seca — just 15 miles from Pebble Beach.

““Both inside and outside, the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R is primarily a reflection of its function,” explains Head of Design BMW Automobiles Karim Habib. “The exterior and interior design is based around the requirements of motorsport as far as the car and driver are concerned; aerodynamics and driving dynamics on the one hand, the most direct connection between driver and machine on the other. In my view, that’s something the Hommage car expresses in a very emotional way. At the same time, all the details from the BMW 3.0 CSL are present in the Hommage model. And they are all there to be discovered in their original form. It’s a bow to the 1975 car.”

Every detail of the Hommage car has its origins in the successful racing machine from 1975, but all have since been updated and integrated technically into a modern design language. The colours and graphics used, not to mention the addition of a number 25, reference the extraordinary record of success notched up by the works BMW 3.0 CSL in 1975. Indeed, the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R even revives details such as the ‘Bavarian Motor Works’ decals on the windscreen and rear window. Swathes of exposed carbon fibre spotlight the 1975 model’s commitment to lightweight construction and, as a cutting-edge material, help lift it into the modern era.

The butterfly effect

18 June, 2026

The man on the mountain bike pedalled over, taking it all in. Gazing in wonderment at this small Japanese coupe with butterfly doors, he said, “Wow, I have never seen one of these before. What is it?” When I told him it was a Toyota, he nearly fell off his bike.
The Toyota Sera is unique amongst ’90s Japanese coupes. The Sera, which is Italian for ‘evening’, can trace its roots back to Toyota’s AXV-II concept car. Launched as part of a trio of Toyota concept cars at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, it shared its underpinnings with the P70 Toyota Starlet. The similarities ended there, thanks to the AXV-II’s low-slung and rounded coupe styling with butterfly doors. These doors were held upright by gas struts when fully open. Glass covered the upper section of the doors and the rear hatchback.
These features, much to everyone’s surprise, were carried over to the production Sera in 1990. Toyota marketed the Sera, which means ‘will be’ in Spanish and ‘princess’ in Hebrew, as a funky alternative to the much-loved MR2.

Racing Mazdas

12 June, 2026

Both Rod Millen and Ron Kendall were rotary racing kings, emanating from the North Shore of Auckland, where I grew up. And the ultimate rotary techno guru was Bill Shiells, who developed the engine into a rocket ship while working out of Gulf Mazda in Takapuna from 1969, and later in his own business, Rotorsport. He began to extract some phenomenal horsepower from the enigmatic rotary engine. Bill was one of the first to race the Mazda RX-2 Coupe in 1971 and achieved immediate success, causing others to sit up and take notice, particularly the North Shore’s racing elite. They included Robbie Francevic, Rod Millen, Ron Kendall, John Woolf, John Le Feuvre, and Rex Findlay.