JUDGE’S NOTES: JOHN BARKER

How M Traction Control and a wet road created an ecoty highlight for Barker

EARLIER, BOVINGDON AND I WERE STANDING IN THE warm sun on the old ferry jetty at Kylesku, marvelling at the crystal clear waters teeming with little fishes. Now mist was obscuring the distant views and it had started to rain. It was perfect. Every road test is enriched by some wet running and Scotland was finally delivering on its reputation. I didn’t know it but, wipers flick-flacking, the steady climb of the M3 Competition up my finishing order was about to accelerate, its back end exuberantly kicked out a few degrees. Having two cars from one manufacturer at ecoty is a double endorsement, but some car makers don’t see it that way, arguing that one of their cars will lose. Happily, BMW isn’t among them, but I have to confess that after driving the M5 CS and then the M3 on day one, I was wondering why we’d brought the M3.

The M5 CS was ridiculously good. The bucking, weaving road that wends its way up to Glenshee ought not to suit a near-two-ton saloon.

I’d already driven up it in the 911 GT3 and, unexpectedly, even that had felt wrong-footed at times, but over the same asphalt the M5 trod with astonishing deftness, its composure and dynamic fidelity far exceeding my expectations. Having run the M550i long-termer (a sort of tame M5) and twin-tested the M5 Competition, I thought I had an idea where the CS might reach. I didn’t. It was off the chart.

A run in the M3 just confirmed how special the M5 CS was. The M3 didn’t make the M5 feel bigger or heavier or unresponsive; the M3’s steering felt less direct, less connected, and its slightly lower mass (by less than 100kg) actually seemed less well checked and managed.

However, after that bruising initial encounter, the M3 began to slowly creep back up my order, helped by a remarkable engine. Its twin-turbo straight-six evokes the rich, jangly drawl of earlier, naturally aspirated BMW straight-sixes but comes with a low-rev, full-boost explosion of torque that’s as giddying as the M5’s twinturbo V8. With just rear drive, such a delivery could be a liability

in the wet, of course, and now we had the opportunity to find out.

Coincidentally, Bovingdon and I found ourselves on the same road at the same time in the M5 and M3, heading south from Kylesku, over the hills towards Ardvreck Castle, with all that road’s lumps, bumps and tight corners now slick with rain. When evo first tested the M4 (issue 284), I banged on about its Drift Analyser on track, but it’s the associated M Traction Control feature that’s the game changer. Essentially, it’s a scalable traction and stability control system that lets you decide, from 0 to 10, just how much wheelspin and tail swing you want.

I didn’t want everything off following Jethro, because grip was low and there were too many bumps, so full torque would have escalated the rear slip very rapidly. After a couple of corners I’d set the slider at 3 (0 is fully off, 10 fully on) and it was superb, almost surreal. The tail would slip but only go so far, so I didn’t feel that the performance was constrained, nor the ability to set the attitude with the throttle, and even over bumps where the torque might spin up the rears, the system was right there with the perfect, subtle intervention. Utterly brilliant.

In these conditions the M5 CS should have been exposed. Yes, it’s four-wheel drive, but that’s only as good as the grip of those four tyres and the CS is on lightly treaded Pirelli P Zero Corsas. And despite costing twice as much as the M3, being an earlier-generation car it doesn’t have M Traction Control. But here’s the thing. Despite all this, the M5 CS still bosses the M3 on this twisting, bumpy, rain-slick road. Reels it in. Hassles it. Even here it’s precise, sure-footed on and off the power, confidence inspiring and engaging. So while the M3 climbed my order, the M5 CS cemented its position at the very top.

The 911 GT3 could have bested it but the manual car supplied wasn’t nearly as well tied down or polished as the PDK car we group tested earlier in the year. Phenomenal engine, mind. I loved the V10 in the Huracán STO too, and it’s a wonderful supercar, but, honestly, last year’s entry-level Evo RWD is all the Huracán I need or want. Same goes for the Civic. I’m a huge fan of the standard Type R and wanted to love the Limited Edition, but it’s sacrificed too much everyday brilliance, particularly its exquisite damping, for greater track ability. And I don’t think anyone expected the SF90 to frustrate, thrill and spook us in equal measure. Not Ferrari, who bet on it rather than sending the Roma, or sending them both…

None of this detracts from BMW’S achievement. After a few years misfiring, the engineers at M Gmbh are knocking it out of the park. Last year the M2 CS won, this year the M5 CS, and next year there’ll be an M4 CS. That would be a hell of a hat trick but M Gmbh are on a hell of a roll.