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The BMW M2 is about to get a new suit, and it is a period one. Riverti Automobili, a little-known Italian coachbuilder, is teasing a bespoke special based on the current G87 car, restyled to echo the 3.0 CSL of the early 1970s. Almost nothing has been confirmed. The company website is still a holding page. But a running example has already been spotted climbing the hill at Tutto Benne, so this is metal, not pixels.
Choosing the M2 as a base is shrewd. Mechanically it is the sharpest small car in the M catalogue, rear-driven and armed with a turbocharged straight-six good for roughly 480hp in current form. The styling is the sticking point. Its slab sides and blunt corners split opinion more than any other M car in showrooms. Keep the running gear, bin the bodywork, and you have solved the only real complaint.
The look being borrowed is a serious one. The 3.0 CSL was BMW’s lightweight touring car weapon, all flared arches, roof spoiler and that towering rear wing that earned it the Batmobile nickname. It swept European touring car titles and remains one of the most beautiful shapes Munich has ever signed off. Reinterpreting it on a modern platform is a tall order. Proportions will make or break the whole thing.
Beyond that, the sheet is blank. No power figure. No kerb weight. No word on how deep the panel changes go, how many will be built, or when the covers come off. Riverti itself is an unknown quantity with no track record to judge it by. The restomod trade is booming, from Audi Sport quattro tributes to reworked first-generation TTs, and plenty of hopefuls never make it past a single show car.
Still, that hillclimb sighting counts for something. A car turning wheels in anger suggests development is genuinely under way rather than stuck in a rendering suite. If Riverti lands the stance and the surfacing, an M2 wearing CSL clothes could become one of the most desirable coachbuilt BMWs in years. For now, it is a promise. The reveal will settle it.
