Quote:
Originally Posted by Go Horns!
The CSL concept was not BMW's idea. BMW left racing in 1969, but it supported Alpina's racing. Alpina knew that the 2800 CS was too heavy, so it sent BMW a letter with the plan to increase the engine to a 3.0 and cut weight. BMW tasked Alpina with doing it because it couldn't.
The CSL name was chosen after it was built and needed to be marketed for homologation. So one thing has always been true, M is for marketing.
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At this point, you're really just splitting hairs here.
The fact that the CSL program was brought in-house to BMW and subsequently led to the establishment of BMW Motorsport GmbH is the main event here.
Ultimately, it was BMW that made the decision to incorporate & make the CSL a BMW factory program (meaning all the rights therein belong to BMW), not ALPINA, even if they were the ones who made the project technically possible.
Let's put it another way.
Take the sentence: "The M-DCT in the E9x M3 is BMW M's first dual-clutch transmission."
You could say that since Getrag are the ones who actually did the R&D for the M-DCT, that they (Getrag) would deserve credit and you'd be correct.
But on the other hand, since the M-DCT was sold as BMW factory equipment, meaning all the licensing (incl. trademark of the name and other rights) belongs to BMW, then it wouldn't be incorrect to say "BMW M first introduced the M-DCT in the E9x M3".
These are not mutually exclusive concepts.