BMW M5
We drive BMW’s new M5. What a car!
The M5 has been the quintessential sports sedan, capable of doubling up as a dayto-day commuter during the week and heading to the track and licking some serious track machines over the weekend. Over its life of five generations, it has spawned some of the best cars ever made and has also been powered by some of the best engines ever made, as you will read later in this issue. But that the M5 has already scaled such lofty heights makes it even more difficult to reinvent the car and that was a big problem for the engineers to tackle.
The one big change that the engineers have come up with is to make the car AWD instead of the traditional RWD car that the M5 always used to be unlike some of the other cars in this category. The purists would definitely have been dismayed by the thought of an AWD M5, but this change was inevitable, given the rise in the power and torque that the cars have to lay down on the tarmac. Since the first M5, max power of these cars has doubled while peak torque has also increased manifold.
The joy of a car is in driving it and we will get to it in a bit, after we take a look at its exteriors. The new 5-series on which the 6th generation M5 is based was not an extravagant car, elegant with some modern touches and the M5 stays true to that form and design. However, the front is radically changed with a revised front lower bumper and air dam catering to the need of air intake in huge quantities, to feed the eight-pots lurking under the bonnet and to keep the mechanicals and fluids cool. Even though it does not look radical or radically different from the new 5-series apart from the wheels and the ceramic brakes if one has opted for them, there is a lot of change under the skin. The roof, for instance, is now made entirely of carbon fibre reinforced plastic. There is lots more aluminium in its body and also composite materials which makes the 6th generation
THE ONE BIG CHANGE THAT THE ENGINEERS HAVE COME UP WITH IS TO MAKE THE CAR AWD INSTEAD OF THE TRADITIONAL RWD CAR THAT THE M5 ALWAYS USED TO BE
M5 lighter than the 5th one, despite having the additional weight of the AWD system.
The engine is the same 4.4-litre V8 used in the previous generation but its power output now touches 600bhp starting from 5,600rpm and all the way up to 6,700rpm. The peak torque of 750Nm is available from a low 1,800rpm right upto the point where is starts making its maximum power. The power band of this engine spreads over 4,900rpm, and that by itself is outstanding. In this car though, apart from being connected to an electric transfer case for shifting the drive to the front wheels, the engine is mated to an 8-speed automatic gearbox, a type similar to the one that does duty now across the BMW range unlike the previous generation car that used a 7-speed dual clutch transmission. One can, ofcourse, select the urgency of the gearshifts, like on the previous M gearboxes.
THE ENGINE POWER OUTPUT TOUCHES
600BHP STARTING AT 5,600RPM ALL THE WAY UP TO 6,700RPM
as I had the guts to, it just would not step out of line, even though the circuit was damp in places. But, then there are the two red buttons on the steering wheel.
Pre-set with driving modes. Press one, and the car would feel like a RWD one, with the rear ready to step out but not allowed to by much. Well, actually, one can set it up so that the car is actually only RWD and have some fun which the BMW Motorsport driver who was leading our six laps on track started doing, smoking the rears at every corner and holding the drifts corner after corner. Trying to emulate him with the car only allowing me limited slip, I noticed that the steering, without being as heavy as some of the BMW steerings have been in the past, in guise of sportiness, was actually excellent. Just the right weightage, precise and giving the feel of being alive in one’s hands.
Driving the M5 is so intoxicating that one fails to notice what a good job BMW has done with the M5’s interiors. Seats that were extremely snug and supportive also feel premium. Fit and finish as well as quality are top notch and the interiors, though understated like the exteriors of the car are sporty and exude luxury.