RE: BMW M5 Competition: UK Drive

[rtz62]

As an aside and further to my comment earlier about there being a couple of M5’s being used as private hire vehicles in the Chesterfield area;
I’ve just seen an Audi A8 private hire car.
So what, you may say, no different to those M5’s
Well this one is not a 3.0tdi, it’s a 6.0 W12!!!!
How on earth do they make that pay? One would have thought an M5’s running costs were high but a W12???

[Wills2]

BMWBen said:

Wills2 said:

Don Colione said:

In my humble opinion, the M5 has lost its way from its sports sedan roots. This car is overweight, overpowered, overpriced, and unbalanced as a proper sports saloon.

My last favorite M5 was the V10... It had its flaws, but it was at least exciting!

The last two iterations of the M5 have been "cold" because of that engine... While powerful, they are so characterless they have to make up fake 'performance' engine sound to pump into the cabin. That is the ultimate fail in a sports saloon imo. I also am not in favor of the move to AWD; which I know was done to corral the power, but adds more weight and removes the rear-wheel dynamism that I love about performance driving. I know it can be turned off.

I consider the Lexus GS-F the modern spiritual successor to the E39 M5. Imo Lexus' biggest problem or weakness is that they don't make manual transmissions!

In the words of the monkey himself - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIHQfqwLYys

I know that is the last edition model, but it highlights the 'problems' that I suspect are still present in this iteration...

That M5 looked and sounded great to me, I loved my F10 M5, Harris also calls it a superlative car with a magnificent engine, so I'm confused

Edited by Wills2 on Tuesday 23 October 18:01

The sound apparently isn't fake, it's actual engine noise, just played through the speakers.

I think it's rather a smart idea actually, because it means you can have a nice quiet car when you're doing long distance cruising and a fruity sounding one when you're pressing on.

I owned an F10 M5, and you wouldn't have known what was happening if someone hadn't told you...

Yep asd does tend to upset those that have never had the car for some reason.

Agreed I loved the M5 for what it was I did 31k in 12 months and I couldn't think of a better car to munch miles in, it was imperious on the motorway such was its surfeit of power and torque.

I had an AC Schnitzer exhaust fitted, so it sounded good when you put your foot down as well.

Interior was pretty nice as well.

[CaptainEejit]

its gonna be a rare sight..not a particularly relevant car for the UK imo.
Sort of glad there are still people out there keen on buying them as it’s interesting to read about, proper Top Trumps!

[JMBMWM5]

I have the F90 M5 (none comp) and I am more than happy with it, I have the CC Brakes which drop the weigh a touch and improve steering feel.
A great all rounder and I hope to keep it for a couple of years (a first for me).
No not for everyone but a sleeper with grunt.

[mcerbm]

Slippydiff said:

Cracking post. Far too sensible for PH though

No mention of the new car's overtaking abilities ?
I've no doubt that using all the available power could and would get you into licence losing territory, but as mcerbm said, ultimately you're in control of it. I owned a stock 996 GT2 and one modded to 530hp, I used the first (standard car) as a daily driver, it made for some VERY entertaining drives between Birmingham and N.Wales.

I'd really appreciate the grunt the M5C has, I've no doubt it's ability to dispatch the queues of "saving the planet, do-gooders" on our A roads, (you know the ones, they used to to 50 in a 60, now they do 40 in a 60 FFS)

And not content with holding everyone up, they encourage all the other dimwits to do the same behind them, end result a train of 6,7,8 cars trundling along bumper to bumper at 40mph .... A 500-600hp 4WD saloon is THE perfect machine for making progress on the roads in this day and age. Would it be worth the savage fuel bills and depreciation ? Hell yeh

Overtaking ability is very good as you would expect, it does feel noticeably quicker than the F10, this could partially be due to the gearing now that its 8 speed rather than 7, and also to the engine. I wouldnt say that it pulls like the F10 a gear down (i.e. 4th in the F90 would feel like 3rd in the F10), but its not too far away from that, its a good noticeable jump, and thankfully again it seems to be mapped properly. The F10 has a nice introduction to teh torque, its smooth and rises like a NA car, nothing like the spikey full bore introduction that was in the M3/M4, no idea why BMW did that since they brought the car out after the linear F10 power delivery. You also get to enjoy 2nd gear in the F90, you dont always get to do that in the F10 unless you have a very good set of rear tyres.

On a side note, since I mentioned the smooth power delivery. I had to put the M5 on a dyno earlier last year after my caterham wasnt ready for a sprint series I had entered, its based on power to weight so I substituted the M5 in so I wouldn't lose too many championship points. It made 531 horsepower at the wheels! this is a pre-facelift that is meant to be 552bhp at the flywheel. The operator didnt want to do a coastdown for losses to get the flywheel figure as he was unsure of asking the DCT gearbox to go into neutral at 140mph+ Anyway even with conservative estimates for losses that is a 600bhp car at the flywheel. Other forums had owners posting 580bhp+ so I guess I was lucky.Peak torque was at 6000rpm (very surprising) and it ramps up nicely and smoothly from low rpm.