The BMW M5 is a high-performance variant of the BMW 5 Series marketed under the BMW M sub-brand. It is considered an iconic vehicle in the sports saloon category. The first M5 model was hand-built beginning in late 1984 on the E28 535i chassis with a modified engine from the M1 that made it the fastest production saloon at the time. M5 models have been produced for every generation of the 5 Series since 1984, with occasional gaps in production (1995 to 1998, 2023 to 2024). Official website: BMW M
At first I thought the engine sound through the stereo was a very stupid idea. Then I realized, that actually might be quite brilliant, as instead of owners having to uncork their exhaust, to add drone to the cabin, and annoy most people around them (most people don't know or care about what an M5 is or what it's packing, and those of us who do care, are in the minority.... And will still hope that we don't live next door to one of said owners who has to get up for work early, or come back home from partying late).
It would have been nice if by some crazy lengths, they could have used the actual, literal, raw engines sound, instead of what I've read is a fully synthesized, fake sound. As a synthesized sound, it better be damn 110% accurate.
It would have been nice if by some crazy lengths, they could have used the actual, literal, raw engines sound, instead of what I've read is a fully synthesized, fake sound. As a synthesized sound, it better be damn 110% accurate.
You really think so?
Then you probably think the whole idea of piping the sound into the cabin is also stupid.
There's a difference between piping the sound of the engine of the car you're driving and that of completely irrelevant cars.
OK, but my think was that every engine no matter how great sounding are profoundly effected by the adding of a turbo so whilst I do get your and the point made by South I was only adding the opinion that if you were going to the bother of doing this then why not give the customer the option of choice in the same way as you get with suspension and gearbox, a soft genuine sound, a beefed one that's unrestricted by turbos and an all out race engine note for the days you take it to the track, after all when you go to the track everyone secretly wants to live out the fantasy of being a race car driver.
chonkoa
Aerodynamic Artisan
Are you Americans still paying over list price to 'be the first'? And they say there's a recession looming....
Count me out of that stupidity.
chonkoa
Aerodynamic Artisan
But the M6 GC will be in the Panny price-point and not the CLS63AMG from what is been anticipated by certain quarters.
Giannis
Staff member
Wunderkind
Chicane Challenger
I think ALL of us (Mercedes, Audi, BMW fans) loved the old 5.0L V10 N/A engine. It rev'ed to the high 8,000rpm and looked stunning.
The new turbo V8 might develop its peak power at the high 5,000rpm, but it is a great lump regardless. I think we just have to get our heads around the fact that fuel consumption and emission requirements are becoming ever more stringent and that N/A enignes are fast becoming a thing of the past for mainstream models. We just need to embrace the new smaller, force induction engines.
Scott27, ask your friends at M to consider a special run of V10+DCT M5's to be produced before the new Euro VI comes into being.
The new turbo V8 might develop its peak power at the high 5,000rpm, but it is a great lump regardless. I think we just have to get our heads around the fact that fuel consumption and emission requirements are becoming ever more stringent and that N/A enignes are fast becoming a thing of the past for mainstream models. We just need to embrace the new smaller, force induction engines.
Scott27, ask your friends at M to consider a special run of V10+DCT M5's to be produced before the new Euro VI comes into being.
Car and driver: BMW M5 first drive
5 is Alive: Turbos transform the M5 experience.
Quicker? Yes. More sophisticated? Yes. More fun in a hairpin? Yes. Is the new BMW M5 what we’re accustomed to expect from BMW’s M division? Um, well, as we discovered during a session in southern Spain, the future of M is big, blustery, red-hot, torque-gushing turbos fitted to smaller engines with mass-production roots. The days of bespoke, high-revving track-bred screamers under the hoods of hopped-up BMWs are probably over. Is this a bad thing? We’re not sure yet.
This fifth-generation M5, known internally as the F10, is due to arrive in the U.S. late next summer, likely as a 2013 model, and at an expected base price of around $90,000. BMW wants this M5 to be more flexible and everyday drivable. So those hoping for a twitchier, more involving adrenaline-generator than the outgoing E60 M5 may go away disappointed. The M5 remains unapologetically a heavyweight, an executive express, a velvet-wrapped hammer, a shark in whale’s clothes that should bolt its comfortably well-off owner to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds or so, roughly a half-second quicker than the old M5 with the SMG single-clutch automated manual. It might not be a four-door Elise, but this new M5 can scoot.
We further estimate that the M5 will rocket over a quarter-mile of pavement in a hair over 12 seconds when using the automatic gearbox’s launch-control system, which shaves a little time by dropping the clutch at around 3000 rpm and shifting for you. Radially mounted six-piston front monoblock Brembo calipers on drilled bi-metal rotors with iron discs and aluminum hats scrub speed quickly, although the M5 is saddled with a couple hundred more pounds than before. (Despite employing aluminum doors and an aluminum hood, the new M5’s mass creeps to 4300 pounds or so.) So it may not eclipse its predecessor’s 158-foot 70-mph-to-0 braking figure.
Hydraulic Steering is Better, but Not Perfect
As is the M way, all that performance is disguised by rather understated mods to the basic 5-series, including squarer front and rear fascias, the requisite four tailpipes, new sill skirts, a trunk wing, fender vents, and special 19-inch wheels (20s are optional). Inside, there are a thousand buttons and dancing needles and digital readouts, including a head-up display projected on the windshield that disappears if you wear polarized sunglasses. Upholstery is a sea of stitched leather, and the rest is soft-touch plastic accented by an unusual band of vertical-striped metal trim that recalls the corrugated roof of a Quonset hut.
In the new M5, you cannot select a gear, push a pedal, or turn the wheel without assistance from the many watchful computers monitoring your every bodily twitch. BMW goes to lengths to make the electronic layer between you and the machine transparent, or at least subject to an off button, and they are largely successful. But a slight fog of artificiality remains, especially in the steering, converted from electric assist in the base 5-series models to a more natural-feeling hydraulic boost in the M5.
Smokes If You Got ’Em
Thanks to the M5’s sharper camber and caster settings, the helm quickly executes your commands and does everything you could desire—everything, that is, except talk back with those little organic tugs and sags that make lively cars feel, well, alive. But the suspension of forged control arms, links, and knuckles, which share virtually no part numbers with the current 550i’s, is more neutral than the old M5’s and more easily and progressively throttle-steered through corners. It may be heavier, but the new M5 felt lighter on its feet at the 3.4-mile Ascari circuit south of Seville, pea-shooting from corner to corner with blazing power, turning in smartly without noticeable roll in the body or squish-down in the tires, and then oozing out in one long, lurid, and controllable drift.
Along with three driver-selectable stability-control modes, three settings for throttle response, three firmness levels for the shocks, and three shift-speed options, the have-it-your-way M5 offers you three steering modes, which progressively reduce boost. With Mercedes improving its game in this department, especially on the new CLS, we think Benz and BMW are going to meet in a middle that feels an awful lot like the new M5.
Power delivery from the 560-hp, 4360-cc twin-turbo V-8—yes, 560 horses from only 266 cubic inches!—is a blast, literally, from about 1500 rpm to 6000, during which the two Honeywell turbines nestled into the valley of the engine block blow their strongest breezes. There’s so much torque steaming aft that even with an electronically locked clutch-plate differential and larger 295/35 Michelin Pilot SuperSport rear tires, the back end easily breaks grip from a standstill under wide-open acceleration.
The tach needle will swing all the way to 7200 before it hits red, but it doesn’t need to. The stated reason for the 4.4’s lofty redline is track lappers who may want to hold gears longer, but we suspect the real reason is to pay tribute to M’s heritage of lofty top ends: The old E60’s V-10 spun to 8250. In this engine, Elvis pretty much leaves the building at 6000 rpm, and he shuffles out quietly, as the engine’s fierce guttural blat is heavily muffled by the turbos.
Manual Transmission in Limbo?
Dubbed the S63 TU for “technical update,” the oddly configured “reverse flow” V-8—in which the intake manifolds feed from the outside and the exhaust exits into the vee—has large and small changes from the S63 in the BMW X5 M and X6 M. The basics remain the same, but BMW’s throttle-less Valvetronic induction control is deployed on the S63 TU, as are larger turbos and intercoolers, different injectors and control electronics, and a higher compression ratio of 10.0:1.
The power delivery is—dare we say it—almost diesel-like. Sure, it revs faster and sounds a lot better than any diesel, and the delivery is lumpier as the boost comes on or blows off, but the S63 TU’s 502 lb-ft reach full force just off idle at 1500 rpm and stay until 5750 rpm, figures that would make Herr Diesel blush. The Getrag seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, a reinforced version of the M3’s optional unit, is geared tall, with a double overdrive and a 3.15:1 final drive, both to save fuel and to take advantage of the engine’s power curve, or relative lack of curve, as it were. We’ve been told that the U.S. will again get a six-speed stick-shift manual, but officials at our drive weren’t willing to confirm the plan.
“There are days you can hear it clear across the Atlantic Ocean: ‘We need a manual transmission!’ ” says Albert Biermann, vice president of engineering for BMW’s M division. “Some days the guys in Munich hear it, some days not.” Solution: scream louder.
One thing BMW did hear were the complaints about the E60’s small fuel tank. The F10’s holds an additional 2.6 gallons, or 21.1 in total. When EPA testing is completed next year, average mileage could land somewhere in the low 20s, we’re told, a substantial gain over the old M5 automatic, which was rated at 11 mpg city/17 highway.
The M5 is a quantifiably superior car to its predecessor. Some things can’t be quantified, however, such as the sublime joy of a sky-high redline and the sound of an expensive precision instrument winding up to reach it. And therein lies BMW’s conundrum, and ours. We’re all for more-efficient, more-powerful torque monsters, but perhaps not at the expense of personality.
5 is Alive: Turbos transform the M5 experience.
Quicker? Yes. More sophisticated? Yes. More fun in a hairpin? Yes. Is the new BMW M5 what we’re accustomed to expect from BMW’s M division? Um, well, as we discovered during a session in southern Spain, the future of M is big, blustery, red-hot, torque-gushing turbos fitted to smaller engines with mass-production roots. The days of bespoke, high-revving track-bred screamers under the hoods of hopped-up BMWs are probably over. Is this a bad thing? We’re not sure yet.
This fifth-generation M5, known internally as the F10, is due to arrive in the U.S. late next summer, likely as a 2013 model, and at an expected base price of around $90,000. BMW wants this M5 to be more flexible and everyday drivable. So those hoping for a twitchier, more involving adrenaline-generator than the outgoing E60 M5 may go away disappointed. The M5 remains unapologetically a heavyweight, an executive express, a velvet-wrapped hammer, a shark in whale’s clothes that should bolt its comfortably well-off owner to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds or so, roughly a half-second quicker than the old M5 with the SMG single-clutch automated manual. It might not be a four-door Elise, but this new M5 can scoot.
We further estimate that the M5 will rocket over a quarter-mile of pavement in a hair over 12 seconds when using the automatic gearbox’s launch-control system, which shaves a little time by dropping the clutch at around 3000 rpm and shifting for you. Radially mounted six-piston front monoblock Brembo calipers on drilled bi-metal rotors with iron discs and aluminum hats scrub speed quickly, although the M5 is saddled with a couple hundred more pounds than before. (Despite employing aluminum doors and an aluminum hood, the new M5’s mass creeps to 4300 pounds or so.) So it may not eclipse its predecessor’s 158-foot 70-mph-to-0 braking figure.
Hydraulic Steering is Better, but Not Perfect
As is the M way, all that performance is disguised by rather understated mods to the basic 5-series, including squarer front and rear fascias, the requisite four tailpipes, new sill skirts, a trunk wing, fender vents, and special 19-inch wheels (20s are optional). Inside, there are a thousand buttons and dancing needles and digital readouts, including a head-up display projected on the windshield that disappears if you wear polarized sunglasses. Upholstery is a sea of stitched leather, and the rest is soft-touch plastic accented by an unusual band of vertical-striped metal trim that recalls the corrugated roof of a Quonset hut.
In the new M5, you cannot select a gear, push a pedal, or turn the wheel without assistance from the many watchful computers monitoring your every bodily twitch. BMW goes to lengths to make the electronic layer between you and the machine transparent, or at least subject to an off button, and they are largely successful. But a slight fog of artificiality remains, especially in the steering, converted from electric assist in the base 5-series models to a more natural-feeling hydraulic boost in the M5.
Smokes If You Got ’Em
Thanks to the M5’s sharper camber and caster settings, the helm quickly executes your commands and does everything you could desire—everything, that is, except talk back with those little organic tugs and sags that make lively cars feel, well, alive. But the suspension of forged control arms, links, and knuckles, which share virtually no part numbers with the current 550i’s, is more neutral than the old M5’s and more easily and progressively throttle-steered through corners. It may be heavier, but the new M5 felt lighter on its feet at the 3.4-mile Ascari circuit south of Seville, pea-shooting from corner to corner with blazing power, turning in smartly without noticeable roll in the body or squish-down in the tires, and then oozing out in one long, lurid, and controllable drift.
Along with three driver-selectable stability-control modes, three settings for throttle response, three firmness levels for the shocks, and three shift-speed options, the have-it-your-way M5 offers you three steering modes, which progressively reduce boost. With Mercedes improving its game in this department, especially on the new CLS, we think Benz and BMW are going to meet in a middle that feels an awful lot like the new M5.
Power delivery from the 560-hp, 4360-cc twin-turbo V-8—yes, 560 horses from only 266 cubic inches!—is a blast, literally, from about 1500 rpm to 6000, during which the two Honeywell turbines nestled into the valley of the engine block blow their strongest breezes. There’s so much torque steaming aft that even with an electronically locked clutch-plate differential and larger 295/35 Michelin Pilot SuperSport rear tires, the back end easily breaks grip from a standstill under wide-open acceleration.
The tach needle will swing all the way to 7200 before it hits red, but it doesn’t need to. The stated reason for the 4.4’s lofty redline is track lappers who may want to hold gears longer, but we suspect the real reason is to pay tribute to M’s heritage of lofty top ends: The old E60’s V-10 spun to 8250. In this engine, Elvis pretty much leaves the building at 6000 rpm, and he shuffles out quietly, as the engine’s fierce guttural blat is heavily muffled by the turbos.
Manual Transmission in Limbo?
Dubbed the S63 TU for “technical update,” the oddly configured “reverse flow” V-8—in which the intake manifolds feed from the outside and the exhaust exits into the vee—has large and small changes from the S63 in the BMW X5 M and X6 M. The basics remain the same, but BMW’s throttle-less Valvetronic induction control is deployed on the S63 TU, as are larger turbos and intercoolers, different injectors and control electronics, and a higher compression ratio of 10.0:1.
The power delivery is—dare we say it—almost diesel-like. Sure, it revs faster and sounds a lot better than any diesel, and the delivery is lumpier as the boost comes on or blows off, but the S63 TU’s 502 lb-ft reach full force just off idle at 1500 rpm and stay until 5750 rpm, figures that would make Herr Diesel blush. The Getrag seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, a reinforced version of the M3’s optional unit, is geared tall, with a double overdrive and a 3.15:1 final drive, both to save fuel and to take advantage of the engine’s power curve, or relative lack of curve, as it were. We’ve been told that the U.S. will again get a six-speed stick-shift manual, but officials at our drive weren’t willing to confirm the plan.
“There are days you can hear it clear across the Atlantic Ocean: ‘We need a manual transmission!’ ” says Albert Biermann, vice president of engineering for BMW’s M division. “Some days the guys in Munich hear it, some days not.” Solution: scream louder.
One thing BMW did hear were the complaints about the E60’s small fuel tank. The F10’s holds an additional 2.6 gallons, or 21.1 in total. When EPA testing is completed next year, average mileage could land somewhere in the low 20s, we’re told, a substantial gain over the old M5 automatic, which was rated at 11 mpg city/17 highway.
The M5 is a quantifiably superior car to its predecessor. Some things can’t be quantified, however, such as the sublime joy of a sky-high redline and the sound of an expensive precision instrument winding up to reach it. And therein lies BMW’s conundrum, and ours. We’re all for more-efficient, more-powerful torque monsters, but perhaps not at the expense of personality.
bmwblog
Kraftkurve King
Yes , Please remind us again of your address so we can send you the bill for new tyres.....
Don't worry, we already got that bill
Next day it was in my inbox.
You have to realise these are whole different kind of pop and fart. They are uniquely BMW. BMW doesn't follow but leads. Despite saying for the last thirty years that their cars would never pop and fart, due to legislation across the world which focuses on sustainability, pops and farts will be part of the future of all M products. Get used to it. Also, BMW don't have the resources that Audi and VW have, and they have access to lots of pops and farts. You can guarantee that over the next few years, BMW cars will be popping and farting like there's no tomorrow, and even though they will sound exactly like every other pop and fart from MB and Audi, BMW will claim they are indeed different, and so different in fact they'll give them a different name (possibly bang and parp) and then claim they invented the whole idea of a pop and fart.
hoffmeister_fan
Kraftwagen König
Car and driver: BMW M5 first drive
5 is Alive: Turbos transform the M5 experience.
The M5 is a quantifiably superior car to its predecessor. Some things can’t be quantified, however, such as the sublime joy of a sky-high redline and the sound of an expensive precision instrument winding up to reach it. And therein lies BMW’s conundrum, and ours. We’re all for more-efficient, more-powerful torque monsters, but perhaps not at the expense of personality.
I think this sums it up perfectly!
BTW, for me really spicy food does it, but why does the M5 pop and fart?
This 'popping and farting' (I assume) is due to the cylinder deactivation/reactivation that happens in milliseconds between gear changes. Presumably done to reduce the torque output of the transmission at the point of the change in order to preserve the gearbox, improve speed and for less 'shove' when changing. This is all a hypothesis but based on what AMG said about the MCT when it debuted in the E63.
This M5 is a beautiful car and after having driven a 520d and my father's 530d GT, (an unloved car), I'm sure it will be a class-leader.
Well done BMW.
This M5 is a beautiful car and after having driven a 520d and my father's 530d GT, (an unloved car), I'm sure it will be a class-leader.
Well done BMW.
Similar threads
BMW M
BMW M GmbH, formerly known as BMW Motorsport GmbH, is a subsidiary of
BMW AG that manufactures high-performance luxury cars. BMW M ("M" for "motorsport")
was initially created to facilitate BMW's racing program, which was very successful
in the 1960s and 1970s. As time passed, BMW M began to supplement BMW's vehicle
portfolio with specially modified higher trim models, for which they are now most
known by the general public. These M-badged cars traditionally include modified engines,
transmissions, suspensions, interior trims, aerodynamics, and exterior modifications
to set them apart from their counterparts. All M models are tested and tuned at BMW's
private facility at the Nürburgring racing circuit in Germany.
Official website: BMW M
Official website: BMW M
