Preview
From the September 2011 Issue of Car and Driver
It’s probably fair to say that the previous BMW M5 (E60) crawled a bit too far up its own posterior. That fourth generation of the archetypal sports sedan was a complicated and abstruse car, with a clumsy automated manual gearbox, a V-10 that prized horsepower over torque, and a series of driver interfaces that was only slightly easier to follow than Swedish experimental cinema. Despite its 106-hp advantage over the M5 it replaced, it was somehow less thrilling and not as visceral, and its relentless pursuit of speed, though noble, came at the expense of everyday drivability. The E60 M5 was a car that was only truly happy plowing into an autobahn fog bank at 155 mph.
So the new M5 (F10) has been rethought with an eye toward beating back the versatile Audi S6s, Cadillac CTS-Vs, and Mercedes E63s that have cropped up to challenge it. Without a drive, though, it’s premature to declare the fifth M5 a return to form. Curb weight is a concern: Based as it is on the heavy new 5-series—itself based on the 7-series—the new M5 could carry reflex-dulling mass in abundance. BMW tells us not to fret. Although the new model, like the 5-series, is 1.8 inches longer and wider than its predecessor, extensive use of high-strength steel and aluminum bodywork (hood, fenders, doors) attempts to keep mass close to the E60 M5’s 4100-pound curb weight. Even if two-tons-plus still seems excessive for the ultimate sports sedan, at least the M division is fighting Jenny Craig’s good fight.
Underhood, the M-car foundation of high-revving naturally aspirated engines is crumbling. The new M5 will be powered by a modded version of the twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V-8 currently in the X5 M and X6 M warthogs. With its revised induction and exhaust systems, it makes five more horsepower (560) than in those applications and scoots just past the CTS-V’s 556. Torque is up two pound-feet to 502, yet that’s 119 more than the outgoing car. Though limited to a politically correct 155 mph, this thing, if uncorked, will run to 190 mph, per BMW, with an optional M Driver’s package.
As the obsession with fuel economy has reached even the sports-sedan exosphere, the new M5 promises a 30-percent reduction in consumption. (Tip: Set the engine-performance mode to “efficient.”) But as we’ve seen from this engine before, it wants for nothing, especially low-rev churn. This V-8 will host an eight-pot séance for the tire-melting, two-generations-gone E39 M5 and an exorcism of the V-10’s clinical power delivery.
Despite the two engines’ disparate characters—and a power-to-weight ratio that shrinks from more than to well below eight pounds per pony—the acceleration numbers wane. The launch-controlled sprint should bring 60 mph in less than four seconds, courtesy of a Getrag seven-speed dual-clutch automatic that drives the rear wheels through a version of the M division’s electronically controlled differential. (The U.S. will also get a six-speed manual.) Its predecessor managed 4.2 seconds to 60, but only with the stuttering single-clutch seven-speed that was the car’s sole gearbox for its first two years.
Predictably, the chassis of the new M5 looks a lot like that of the regular 5-series: unequal-length control arms up front and a web of links in the rear. The M division, however, attaches the electronic dampers and control arms with firmer bushings. Reworked brakes feature six-piston fixed calipers clamping 15.7-inch rotors in front, and one-piston calipers on 15.6-inch rotors in the rear.
So what else do you get for the estimated $90,000 price tag? The requisite big nostrils, of course, but also some subtler alterations, such as a trunklid spoiler, flared wheel arches, four exhaust outlets, 19-inch aluminum wheels, a rear diffuser, and side vents that look as if they were pried off a Ford Taurus SHO. Inside, BMW has wrapped the entire center console in hides, installed M sport seats, laid in an M-specific instrument cluster, and provided M Drive buttons for two individually configured dynamic profiles that store preselected steering, accelerator, shifter, and damper settings.
The M5 goes on sale in the spring. We’ll soon see if it can beat back the competitors it has spawned.
