BMW M5 2005 Review

Track Time

A week on there's still a temptation to pinch myself -- just to make sure it really happened... And it really was that good. Somehow, the 12 laps or so of Melbourne's Sandown Raceway were over in an instant. Gone in a flash -- seemingly in the same split second it took BMW's stellar 373kW M5's SMG seven-speed sequential gearbox to shift at redline in maximum attack MDrive mode.

It's a measure of the potency of the V10-powered 5 Series sedan that its impression (even after a week) totally overshadows the close-to-30 minutes Yours Truly put away at the wheel of BMW's jewel-like E46 M3 the very same day... And an M3 with a Competition Pack and all! Settling into the M5's luxury car interior for our strictly-limited track time I was concerned the M3's precision, its 'weildiness', its racecar-spec brakes and its not inconsiderable straight line urge, would dull the impression of the new performance flagship. I was wrong.

Even in 'sedate' P400 power program with the SMG 'box in auto mode, the M5 was quick -- just a few kilometres per hour faster at the end of each straight than its two-door sibling and quite lively out of Sandown's two S-bend complexes. However, once the P500 mode was liberated and the full 507hp made available, the V10-powered saloon was in a different league than the 'little' six. Try 20-30km/h faster and more to come.

Oh, and forget the 'Power' telltales on the centre-console: the car's intentions were signalled loud and clear by a hard, more urgent metallic edge to its engine note and a 'whoomp' that resonated through the drivetrain each time a 65 milliseconds full-throttle upshift was activated via the steering wheel paddles.

And then the fun really started --at the push of another button (the pre-programmable MDrive switch on the multi-function steering wheel) full sport settings for the Electronic Damper Control, full-tilt SMG Drivelogic gearbox and M Dynamic traction and stability control mode were unleashed. The latter allows what BMW euphemistically says is "a sideslip angle the driver can just about cope with by means of moderate counter-steering." Ahem, drift-time anyone?

Don't think for a minute you're reading a measured, analytical road-based review of BMW's fastest and quickest-ever saloon. We'll leave that duty to the guys at Wheels and publish their findings on CarPoint next week. No, this week, just a few words from our sponsors about the visceral -- acceleration-addled ramblings resulting from a track-based performance binge.

Perhaps the most anticipate performance car for a decade, the M5 truly is in a different league from any other four-door on the market today. It's fast -- very fast. But it's also amazingly competent and confidence inspiring -- even on a racetrack, which is not, after all, the ideal environment for a 1830kg four-door!

Allow the car's multi-layered driver aids do their thing and even a ham-fisted driver can be blindingly quick. The computer 'smarts' underneath the skin of this car can do just about everything except cure the common cold. Launch control will provide a rev-perfect dragstrip launch and thanks to SMG there's no way you can fluff a gearchange. The M5's Dynamic Stability Control sees you safely through almost any corner at almost any speed -- it's seems you (or rather DSC) can change the laws of physics. And when it's time to stop just mash the pedal and whoa.

But unlike some other uber-saloons it's when you start to roll back the processor-controlled help that the M5 really shines.

There's a fluidity and urgency to this car that only emerges as you start to make the critical decisions. Its prodigious power can be metered out rather than simply shovelled. Meanwhile, the M Servotronic steering and finely-honed chassis tune allows you to place what is, let's face it, a b-i-g car with uncanny accuracy. The M Dynamic mode means you are rewarded with unadulterated corner entries and exits rather than default 'settings' numbed by differential brake applications and engine torque tempering.

There's a delicacy to the M5's manners in this guise that belies its size. It arguably just a little more likely to lean towards understeer than the M3 (not such a bad thing with 507hp available to line things up!) and the brake pedal is that quarter of a push longer, but overall it's close enough to faultless to confound my abilities.

What it can do in this state is truly in the realm of the supercar. What it will not do is suffer fools. Like a modern jet fighter that cannot be flown without computer control, the M5 unleashed and unfettled is sharp, and it will bite... And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Note: Wheels' exclusive first Australian road test of the new BMW M5 will be published on CarPoint next week. In the meantime...

ENGINE

TRANSMISSION

CHASSIS

PERFORMANCE

INTERIOR

EXTERIOR