Which Cars Have A BMW S58 Engine Under The Hood?
Few automakers combine luxury and performance as well as BMW, and one could argue the two come together most elegantly in its "M" vehicles series. There are a lot of things that make the engines from the BMW M series so good. They tend to be larger, they're relatively rare, and they're all tested at the legendary Nürburgring circuit. One of the most advanced engines in these cars is the S58, a straight six-cylinder powerplant that can be modified to generate 1,000 horsepower. The S58 is boosted by a twin turbocharger and cooled by three (yes, three) radiators — plus dedicated coolers for engine oil and transmission fluid.
It features valvetronic and double VANOS valvetrain camshaft management systems, along with direct fuel injection. There's an exhaust system which combines with an intake-mounted sound generator to give the S58 a distinctive, roaring tone. The S58 was first used in the 2020 BMW X3 M and X4 M 503 hp crossovers and was added to Competition trim versions of the M3 and M4. It's also used in the M2 and Alpina B3.
The most powerful S58 makes 543 horsepower
The 2023 M2's S58 produces 453 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque, while the 2020 B3's version cranks out 456 horsepower and a skull-rattling 516 pound-feet. In the 2023 BMW M4 CSL, the S58 is tuned to generate 543 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque. In a review for this car, our Steven Ewing wrote that the symphony produced by the CSL's engine was "a wild and somewhat uncouth soundtrack but one that totally befits an aggressive sports coupe."
The most potent production version of the S58 is the one under the hood of the 2023 BMW M3 Competition xDrive, which our Chris Davies reviewed in September 2023. In that model, the inline-six engine is tuned to 503 horsepower and can get the all-wheel drive four-door sedan to 60 miles per hour in just 3.4 seconds. Davies called the M3's performance "legitimately astonishing" and wrote that it was capable of going "toe-to-toe with bonafide supercars."
The 2025 M4 Competition xDrive coupe and convertible will each get a boosted version of the S58 capable of 523 horsepower, but those extra 20 ponies will cost you. The Competition xDrive coupe has a sticker price of just over $88,000, and the convertible is just a few thousand short of $100,000. The fact that the manufacturer is planning to install the S58 in new models is a sign that the engine is still going strong, despite the fact that BMW is putting more resources into EV development.