How times have changed....

[Mario149]

Picked up a 2005 E60 M5 today - V10, 100+ bhp/litre, revs out to 8,250rpm, max power at 7,750 rpm, max torque at 6,100 rpm
....in a saloon car for less than £25K. Dear god I hope someone at BMW was given a medal for signing off that decision!

Yet if I walk into a Porsche dealership with double the money tomorrow, the best newest sportscar offering I can come out with is a flat 4 turbo that's basically all done before the high end sensible family motoring car has even come fully on song.

Genuinely makes me quite sad where we've ended up in so short a time

Edited by Mario149 on Saturday 14th May 19:33

[Mario149]

Yup, there is a touring, but we have an estate hack already and I couldn't face putting our dog in the shiny new car!

[Mario149]

I *love* Clio 172s/182s. If I had space and a remote justification, I'd buy one. One day I'll get drunk enough and end up buying one on ebay at 2am

[Mario149]

MrBarry123 said:

I like your choices but would probably swap the M3 for a mint B7 RS4 Avant.

I reckon any NA M3, M5 or RS4 would be a good shout! Extar brownie points if it's an estate

[Mario149]

boxsey said:

Mario149 said:

Picked up a 2005 E60 M5 today - V10, 100+ bhp/litre, revs out to 8,250rpm, max power at 7,750 rpm, max torque at 6,100 rpm
....in a saloon car for less than £25K. Dear god I hope someone at BMW was given a medal for signing off that decision!

Do you mean it was £25K when new in 2005 or is that what you have just paid for it?

What I just (give or take a bit) paid for it. Obviously in current money it was a ~£90K car when new with a few options. Was just trying to make the point that even with all the modern tech/advancements there is no new Porsche I can buy/order that remotely interests me at the moment. Or BMW for that matter.

My only hope that I can see is if the hybrid tech and vision from the LaFerrari makes it into other real world sportscars i.e. a highly tuned, high revving NA unit with electric motors to fill some (but not all like in a turbo) of the lower end torque giving a decent low end with a torque figure that just increases constantly until almost max rpm, meaning the more you rev it, the ever harder it pulls. For Porsche that might be Carrera with a highly tuned 2.5 litre F6 with 350bhp at 8K rpm, max torque at say 7K, with a 150bhp electric motor providing most of the grunt at low revs for emissions regulation purposes. Everyone wins

[Mario149]

hornetrider said:

Interesting thread. I'm in a dilemma with a lease car incoming, what to do with my current E60 Touring 550i (NA V8)... with a manual gearbox. The sensible thing is to just sell it, but there's a little voice on my shoulder saying store it. My gut feel is it's too vanilla to properly appreciate but it's a very rare car and I'm not sure I'll ever have the chance to buy one or something similar again.

I dunno, 550i has got to be rare, esp in manual form. A quick search suggests it's worth about £10K? I don't know your circumstances, but if you've got the space and don't need th emoney, I'd hold onto it, if only so that in a world of practical turbo 4 pots with autos/DSGs, you can go for the occasional hoon in something that by modern family car standards is totally practical but superbly preposterous!

ETA: we almost bought a 550i Touring instead of our 330d Touring last year for exactly that reason. Only issue was I knew I'd get precious about it, get annoyed at the dog for making a mess of the back and at my gf for kerbing wheels (as she does almost every she drives ) or worse!

Edited by Mario149 on Wednesday 18th May 16:04

[Mario149]

MrBarry123 said:

Mario149 said:

I reckon any NA M3, M5 or RS4 would be a good shout! Extar brownie points if it's an estate

Nothing like a bit of bias eh!?

Mine's a saloon!