Bmw M5

Bmw M5

Bmw M5

The E28 needed just 282bhp to make it the world’s fastest series-production four-door. Just over 2000 were hand-built between 1985 and 1988. But close to 50,000 M5s have been built since, over four model generations.The idea of regression may be disagreeable, but it applies to the new F10-generation BMW M5 super-saloon whether BMW likes it or not. Never before has its Motorsport division replaced a go-faster saloon with one packing fewer cylinders than its direct antecedent. Never before has it shunned a bigger, clean-revving, normally aspirated lump for ‘downsized’ turbocharging in one of its ‘blue chip’ performance saloons. Until now.And so to the $64,000  or rather, seventy-odd thousand pound  question: is this new M5 good enough? Is it a worthy inheritor of such an impeccable lineage? The most thorough independent assessment in the business is about to supply some answers.

Bmw M5

 Bmw M5

Upholding the traditions of so many of BMW Motorsport’s specials, the new M5’s styling is anything but overblown. Its extended side sills and modest bootlid spoiler are typically understated. Adding a note of visual purpose, trademark quad exhaust pipes poke out from under a deeper rear valance. At the front, larger and wider air ducts feed 10 radiators.Which brings us to the rather controversial contents of the M5’s engine bay: a 4.4-litre, all-aluminium 90deg V8 fed by two twin-scroll Honeywell turbochargers packaged between the cylinder banks. The engine runs direct injection working at up to 200bar of pressure, as well as Valvetronic variable valve lift and double Vanos variable camshaft timing. Making 552bhp between 6000rpm and 7000rpm and revving at up to 7200rpm, it offers 10 per cent more power than the outgoing V10 and they say  has the high-rev fireworks and throttle response of one of BMW M’s finest.This V8 also produces 502lb ft between 1500rpm and 5750rpm – 30 per cent more torque than the last M5, accessible over a band of revs three times as wide. It’s also 30 per cent more fuel efficient than the old V10 and, fed from an 80-litre fuel tank, should contribute to a 50 per cent improvement in cruising range.What’s particularly interesting – revealing, even – is how few of the regular 5-series’ active chassis systems have been developed by BMW M for this car. There’s no variable-ratio electro-mechanical power steering system here, no rear-wheel steer, no active anti-roll bars – very little of the gadgetry, in fact, that BMW claims makes the standard 5-series so much more effective to drive. Make of that what you will.Instead, the M5 uses electro-hydraulic power steering and a strong, light, robust but simple suspension. Like the standard car’s chassis, it’s made up of double wishbones up front and multi-links at the rear. There’s a wider front track than standard, as well as new forged aluminium chassis members, progressive rate springs and adaptive dampers.Sheer mass is the only minor disappointment on the spec sheet; our test car weighed in at 1975kg with fuel.

Bmw M5

 Bmw M5

Outstanding quality and luxury, genuine everyday usability, long-distance touring comfort for four occupants... these, too, are ways in which a good super-saloon must distinguish itself these days. Class-leading performance and handling will only be enough for the BMW M5 if they come packaged with all of the above.And the good news is that the new M5’s cabin is more impressive than ever.This five-seat express offers legroom and headroom that’s generous by the standards of its peers, along with soft extended merino leather as standard and a kit tally that includes adaptive bi-xenon headlights, BMW Professional sat-nav, a DAB radio and a head-up display.The driving position is excellent, supported by wide sports seats with more adjustment than most will ever need. The cabin’s material quality and richness unerringly convince you that you’re aboard something luxurious, expensive and well built.All that’s lacking are a few outstanding points of differentiation. Aside from some slightly transformed instruments, embossed leathers and sill plates, there’s little that adds piquancy to the regular 5-series’ business-like ambience.If a test drive in the new M5 comes with a more interesting soundtrack than you were expecting, that may be because part of that mechanical soundscape comes from its audio speakers, not its engine compartment or its exhaust.The M5’s Active Sound Design system reproduces the sound of the car’s V8 through the car’s audio speakers, at various background volumes and frequencies decided on the basis of engine revs, throttle load and road speed data taken ‘live’, directly from the ECU.During our tests, it proved impossible to distinguish between real and reproduced engine sound.

Bmw M5

 Bmw M5

We knew the BMW M5 would have a great deal of performance. We just weren’t quite prepared for the incredible reality of its accelerative potential. Or for the fact that, on another day, it might have been faster still.The new M5 isn’t an easy car to get away from a standstill with optimum thrust. If you’re too aggressive with the throttle, you’ll activate the DSC stability control and lose a lot of momentum. If you turn the DSC off completely, it’s equally easy to spin almost all of the engine’s power away. And with 502lb ft coursing through them, once those rear tyres lose their hold on the road, it takes more than a feather of the accelerator before they’ll bite again.If you’re a little more gentle with this two-tonne four-door off the line – using about 80 per cent of throttle in first gear and then short-shifting into second, where you can flatten the right-hand pedal it’ll hook up and surge forward with quite staggering force.As part of our two-way standing start test, on a slightly damp day, the M5 recorded an average 4.3sec sprint to 60mph, and 100mph came up in 9.0sec dead, which is more than a second sooner than it did in the Jaguar XFR we tested in 2009, and almost a second quicker than Mercedes’ current CLS63 AMG. And that was all without the help of BMW M’s launch control system which, despite repeated efforts, simply refused to engage under test conditions.It’s fast, then prodigiously so. And the seven-speed, dual-clutch M DCT transmission is the M5’s next greatest success story. It endows the car with relaxed usability to match its superb at-pace precision. It will remain in auto mode whichever of the powertrain presets you choose, but nudge one of the standard wheel-mounted paddles and it will shift to manual, in which state it will hold its gears as expected and swap ratios on command with impressive response and precision.Also, there’s a low-speed assistance mode via which you can make the M5 creep at ideal manoeuvring speed with a quick stab of the accelerator. This will make this M5 significantly easier to live with (read, park) than the last.

 Bmw M5

 Bmw M5

Don’t believe the rumour mill: BMW hasn’t softened the M5 to the detriment of its ability to cope when really driven hard either on a testing road or a circuit. True, there is surprising comfort, refinement and ease of use to be enjoyed with this car – a great deal more than you’ll find in most 500bhp super-saloons.That’s the key advantage of BMW M’s multi-mode suspension, steering and powertrain control systems. But thanks to the same systems, there’s also breathtakingly firm damping and a highly responsive engine and gearbox when you select Sport+ mode. And  for anyone who’s wondering – turbo lag isn’t the slightest problem.It’s a pity, though, that there isn’t more delicacy or reward to be found in between those two extremes of the M5’s repertoire. Because where a Jaguar XFR feels like a finely honed and deeply satisfying instrument when you’re simply bowling along at everyday speeds, the BMW keeps more of its dynamic majesty in reserve.Select the suspension’s Comfort mode and, during normal road use, compliance comes without ever putting body control in doubt. There is some patter through the springs and slight fidgeting over very worn asphalt, but it’s hardly a compromise that anybody considering an M5 would find fault with.Even in Sport mode our default choice the M5’s damping is still quite forgiving. At the same time, the car’s two-tonne mass is more restrained and better balanced. Sport+ ramps up the damper settings to a level far beyond the needs of road use, but it also adds cloying, unhelpful weight to the car’s steering without adding road feel.The M5’s active differential transmits the engine’s power to the road very effectively and offers the added involvement of throttle-steering. The DSC’s M Dynamic mode is particularly impressive here, allowing a few degrees of oversteer without withdrawing the electronic safety net altogether. But again, a fundamental shortage of communicative subtlety prevents you from savouring these kinds of moments as you might.

Bmw M5

Bmw M5