Now that I’ve had a bit of time to sit down, ponder and sort through and edit some pictures, it’s time to bring you my highlights of TAS2023. This is of course by no means a comprehensive review of the event but rather, cars that I spent that extra minute or two savouring the sights, taking in their details, and imagining how would my life be if they were mine. My personal favourites of the show.
Let’s begin with the return of BMW Japan and BMW M.
Being a self-confessed BMW propeller-head, it was rather sad to see BMW withdrawing from TAS years ago and whilst Studie AG. held the fort with their tasty selection of lovely tuned BMWs, it never was the same without the parent company’s presence.
For 2023 though, BMW M has returned and how, collaborating with Studie AG to not just showcase a host of M cars and M products, but also custom-built a giant M grille to front their impressive lineup of Bavarian machines.
Taking centerstage was Team Studie’s M4 GTS. To be piloted by factory BMW driver Augusto Farfus brought and team stalwart Seiji Ara. Whilst this car did not do exceptionally well in its debut year of 2022, Team Studie is confident with a year’s worth of data, they will be in championship fighting form once race season kicks off this year.
Elsewhere in the BMW M showcase were a series of M Performance enhanced street machines, like this M240i a car I loved so very much during my time with it just a year ago. As you can see, this example sports the heritage badges that were standard on all M cars built in 2022.
Sporting similar M Performance upgrades and badges were an M4 and M3, both in Competition spec. Personally, I’d pick the M3.
Sadly though, I was slightly disappointed that BMW did not bring out their recently unveiled 3.0CSL nor even the new M4CSL to the show. The 3.0CSL would have definitely had a massive amount of attention. Perhaps BMW Japan is saving it for another show?
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