Nürburgring lap times serve a number of uses. Manufacturers love bandying them about, proving to you just how much better the new model is compared to the old one. Bench racers and Internet forum enthusiasts love them; undoubtedly, many of them fancy it as the thinking man’s quarter-mile or 0-60 stat. BMW is certainly no exception to the former. And why should they be? A good Nürburgring Nordschleife lap is arguably one of the most impressive feats a car can manage today. Perhaps predictably, BMW’s quickest Nordschleife laps come from a handful of M cars. But, funny enough, only three nameplates are even present among the top five. These are the fastest BMWs around the Ring as of November 2026, ranked by their published times for a complete 20.832-kilometer Nürburgring Nordschleife lap.

BMW M3 CS Touring: 7:29.490

The M3 CS Touring brings a wagon body and a large cargo area to the list, yet its 7:29.490 lap is only 0.73 seconds behind the M3 CS sedan. It’s the fastest Touring car/wagon to lap the Nordschleife. Curious how longtime fast wagons like the Audi RS6 and Mercedes-Benz AMG E63 measure up? The E63’s fastest published lap was a respectable 7:45. the latest generation of the Audi RS6 wagon has no published time at all. But the generation before ran an 8:05.

BMW M3 CS: 7:28.760

The M3 CS sedan recorded its 7:28.760 lap in 2023. It was the first M3 to break the 7:30 mark on BMW’s full-lap timing, and it remains quicker than the more practical Touring version by less than a second. We don’t know if BMW plans to test the manual-only CS Handschalter, but we have to imagine the lap time would be ever-so-slightly slower. But I bet it would be a lot more fun.

BMW M2 CS: 7:25.534

The M2 CS is the quickest BMW in the Nürburgring’s compact-car category. BMW development engineer Jörg Weidinger set the 7:25.534 lap in April 2025, beating the previous M2 record by more than 13 seconds and the previous compact-car benchmark by eight seconds. Its time puts the smaller coupe ahead of the M3 CS sedan on the overall BMW list. The standard G87 managed a 7:38.706, illustrating just how different the CS model is from the regular car.

BMW M4 CS: 7:21.989

The 550-horsepower M4 CS sits well ahead of its four-door counterpart. It gives the M4 CS a place among BMW’s fastest cars, despite sitting below the limited-run CSL in the M lineup. More on that in just a minute. BMW took moderate lightweighting efforts with the car, and the CS weighs around 77 pounds (35 kg) less than a standard M4. The G82 M4 CS’s time also illustrates a wide gap between itself and the previous generation car. That car’s best recorded time sits over 20 seconds behind the G82, although it was an independent test rather than a BMW-backed effort.

BMW M4 CSL: 7:18.137

The M4 CSL remains the quickest production BMW to lap the full Nordschleife. BMW’s ultimate coupe set its 7:18.137 time in 2023, improving on the 7:20.207 lap it recorded the previous year. “CSL” stands for “Competition, Sport, Lightweight,” and it appears BMW delivered well on that promise. The CSL lost about 240 pounds (100 kg) relative to the standard G82, and of course more powerful. The lap times speak for themselves.

What’s In a Lap Time?

We can’t really talk about times at the Nordschleife without mentioning some distinguishing lap time records that you’ve also probably seen throughout the years. The five times above are the fastest official records for the brand. But often, laps published by German magazine sport auto—and sometimes other outlets—use a shorter 20.6-kilometer layout. That route omits 232 meters around the T13 grandstand section, where the runs cannot be completed at full speed. Essentially: not all times are equal.

Notably, sport auto cars also show up only in road-legal, as-sold condition. So, no manufacturer trickery to worry about here; it’s a fully independent test. The M4 CSL’s times illustrate the difference: sport auto recorded 7:17.08 on the shorter layout. Meanwhile, during BMW’s official run, the same 20.6-km course was dispatched in a blistering 7:13.497. Another standout time from shorter laps: the F82 M4 GTS, which completed the track in 7:27.88 in 2015. While a factory effort, the GTS wasn’t an “official” time.

Funny enough, the bone stock G82 M4 Competition xDrive ran an only slightly slower 7:28.57, with the M5 CS right behind at 7:29.57. A non-CS F90 managed 7:35.90. All laps were completed by Christian Gebhardt for sport auto. Gebhardt also piloted the RWD G82, which managed a 7:30.79. Amazingly, the M8 Competition managed a 7:32.79. That time puts it ahead of some pretty unexpected rivals, including the Ferrari 458 Italia, 997.2 GT3 RS, Taycan Turbo S, and Pagani Zonda F. We should also probably mention the ridiculous X5 M LM, which completed a full 20.8-km lap in 7:50.

Are Nürburgring times everything? Of course not. No doubt, some incredibly fun-to-drive cars would post some exceedingly unimpressive times. On the other hand, it’s interesting to see that my little M Coupe is only about a minute slower around the Ring than the comparatively lunatic M5 CS (sport auto posted an 8:22 time for the 1998 M Coupe). Certainly not while I’m driving it, mind you. But that illustrates perfectly why people love comparing Ring times. The Ring is a true equalizer; power, weight, agility, and confidence in the car are all equally critical. And there’s arguably no place on Earth as reliable a proving ground.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com