BMW M5

BMW M5 Models

The BMW M Series consists of four different cars, although three of them share the same basic engine. Along with the new flagship M5, there is the M3 built on the 3 Series platform. The M Coupe is that boxy little bugger that looks like all the weight is on the rear wheels, but in fact it has perfect 50-50 weight distribution. The M Roadster is the same car with a soft top; both Coupe and Roadster use 240-horsepower versions of the 3.2-liter six, with five-speed gearboxes.

Driving the BMW M5

At 302 cubic inches, the engine is not huge; but 21st century technology draws a heavy punch from a small package, so think of this 5.0-liter V8 as really big. The speed specs on the fastest production sedan on the planet? Acceleration from 0 to 60 in 4.8 seconds; quarter mile in 13.3 seconds at 108 mph; top speed electronically limited to 155 mph, which in sixth gear would be a casual 5200 rpm or so.

The powerband is eminently comfortable and cruisable, thanks largely to BMW's VANOS system of variable valve timing, which brings the massive torque down into the 3000 and even 2000 rpm range. The free-flowing exhaust system, which exits in four thick tailpipes, is considerably muted for the law, alas, so you have to open the windows to hear the engine sing.

With such acceleration and quick, sure handling, the BMW M5 passes on a two-lane like a motorcycle. It's a fun and personally powerful feeling: twitch out and hammer it, twitch in and back off the gas, done in seconds. On the freeway you can use your foot to move in and out of holes: keep it in fourth gear and squirt, shift to fifth to get legs, and settle in sixth when there's no traffic.

You can hit the 6800-rpm rev limiter in a heartbeat in the lower gears, and it's easy to do so inadvertently because the engine never screams or sounds stressed in any way. You drive by the tach a lot because of this, but you soon get the rhythm of upshifting at 6200 rpm when you're working it. The engine likes to work aggressively in the twisties at nearly 6000 rpm. It feels so strong that you get the feeling the rev limiter is set slightly and conservatively low, and the specs would support this, as the engine makes its maximum 394 horsepower at 6600 rpm. An upshift at 6200 rpm is actually a short shift, and feels like it. Six thousand rpm in third gear is about 88 mph, and it's a measure of the control of this car that this is not an uncommon place to be, when you're driving for satisfaction on a desolate winding two-lane road, in a region of a western state with almost no population. You live in Jersey, you want an M5, you move out West to exercise it.

The six-speed gearbox, a fortified version of that found in the 540i, shifts with tight precision, having a relatively short throw. And sixth gear is not too tall, so you still have torque to accelerate without downshifting at 60 mph. The throttle blip during heel-and-toe downshifts was responsive, but we didn't find the pedals perfectly matching our feet and legs.

The brakes are magic, flawless, breaking a barrier for power, consistency and easy control during hard usage. We were so dazzled that we forgot to test the ABS-like, the brakes are so good that the notion of a "panic" stop never occurred to us. The front rotors are 13.6 inches and the rear 12.9, which says most of it. We did have one small problem, having reached unprecedented ground: when braking from high speed, stunningly deep for a second-gear turn, there was so much forward momentum on our body that if the road was bumpy our right foot was forced hard against the brake pedal, making things less smooth than desired. We needed racing seatbelts to pin our shoulders back.

Point and shoot is an expression that usually refers to a car that doesn't corner, but it rings true for the BMW M5 because you can point it through a corner. It has such solid grip that the car confidently shoots around corners, not merely away from them; you don't have to wait for the apex to floor it. There is a Sport mode, which tightens the recirculating ball steering (and quickens the throttle responsive), making the car feel somewhat heavy at slow speeds, but the "M Servotronic" speed-sensitive power steering is seamless; you don't realize it's there, but the faster you go the lighter the M5 feels.

Performance, performance, performance is what you hear about the M5, but its most amazing quality is the ride. The suspension is MacPherson struts in front, multi-link in rear, using aluminum components, with new meaning brought to the words "fine tuning." Somehow, brilliant BMW engineers have created this magnificent handling without compromising the comfort and smoothness of the ride, not one iota, not in one single situation. Even those humongous low-profile tires don't cause it to jar or bite-okay, maybe over railroad tracks at 5 mph. But there's no jolt over freeway expansion strips, no wandering over changing surfaces, and no tug on the wheel in rain grooves. If a ride this civilized in a 400-horsepower car with such grip is not unbelievable, it certainly is unprecedented.

We saved the complex feature, the Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), both amazing and problematic, for last. The problem is it works too well, or rather too much. However, it's important to say that the problem can be solved with one finger: so push a button and turn it off, if you don't want it. And we're talking here only about driving really hard on dry pavement. We didn't have the opportunity to test the DSC in the wet, which is where it could be a lifesaver, and what it's all about. Complicating our issue is that it was only the traction control, not the directional control, that got in the way. But BMW's DSC integrates everything: ABS, traction control and stability (directional) control. Its sophistication level is state of the art, with wheel sensors that measure not only minute slippage, but lateral acceleration (how hard the vehicle is cornering) and yaw (rotation around the car's vertical axis).

Technically, we can't say what the car's committee of ECU chips was concluding. All we knew was that under hard acceleration or aggressive cornering, the traction control kept activating. It might have been simply because it's super sensitive-way too sensitive. Minute wheelspin happens long before you can feel it or it has any effect on control, and if you want to program a computer to stop it, you can, but that doesn't improve the driving experience. We're talking about a loss of spark and/or application of brakes at 60 mph on dry pavement while upshifting aggressively to third gear. And while cornering hard-but well below the point of sliding-under steady throttle in second gear, if there are light bumps in the road. It feels like a misfire, and it's annoying to have your head lurch forward when the car stops accelerating in these situations. Of course, it might be said that DSC works like a training tool to force you to apply the throttle gently.

In reading BMW's excellent explanation of DSC, the words "normal" and "should" appear a lot. There's the rub, we think. It's not a computer problem, it's that a human being decides what is "normal" and what the car "should" be doing, and then programs the sensitivity of traction control within the DSC. That human being isn't behind the wheel on your road on your day.