BMW M5 Competition Pack 2013 Review - International

Under fire from arch-rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz, BMW has made its fastest M cars even faster with the M Competition Package for its M5 sedan and the three-car M6 range -- and it’s under consideration for Australia.

Outpaced in a straight line by the latest E 63 AMG, RS6 and RS7, the M5’s place at the top of the fast four-door tree has never been under greater threat.

Besides adding another 11kW of power to take the twin-turbo V8 powerhouse out to 423kW, the M Competition Package includes an overhaul of the entire M5 and M6 handling package.

“It’s only 11kW, but we have Bavarian horses and you notice the difference,” M Competition Package project engineering head Maximilian Ahme said.

Every piece of the suspension that controls movement has been tautened, with the springs, dampers and anti-roll bars stiffened by around 20 per cent and the ratio for the hydraulic steering is around 10 per cent faster.

The M Competition Package makes all of the V8 M cars a tenth of a second quicker to 100km/h and two-tenths quicker to 200km/h, meaning the M5 and the M6 Coupe now hit 100km/h in 4.2 seconds.

But while both flagship models are now quicker in acceleration and stretch the gap to 550i and 650i versions in the standard sprint to 0.8 seconds, they still lag behind the upcoming RS7 (3.9 seconds) and the hottest all-wheel drive S version of the E63.

The latter ups performance from 410kW/720Nm to 430kW/800Nm and sprints to 100km/h in a staggering 3.6 seconds, but the only model to be offered in Australia (the rear-wheel drive E 63 S AMG) hits 100km/h in 4.1 seconds – one-tenth sooner than the standard E 63.

Besides, BMW says the changes haven’t been about making the M5 and M6 much faster in a straight line, but rather making them quicker around corners.

The tweaks to the suspension have dropped the M5’s ride height by 10mm (the M6 stays the same), though it still rides on Michelin Pilot Super Sport rubber running on new 20-inch rims.

Kerb weights are unchanged, too, with the M5 still a hefty 1870kg and the M6 Coupe still 1850kg.

And if BMW wanted the M5 to handle better, the early indications from our initial drive at Estoril in Portugal are that it’s succeeded.

Right from the start in the pit lane, the familiar M5 interior takes on a new level of menace via a deeper, slightly lumpier sound emerging out of the 4.4-litre V8’s exhaust pipe.

Where other fast road cars have embarrassed themselves on the tight, often off-camber switchbacks of the Lisbon circuit, the M5 Competition Pack will hear none of it.

Our first lap out saw the car in its harder-edged M2 mode (the button on the steering wheel, pre-programmed with the engine in go-fast mode), but everything else in its default setting.

The M5 jumped hard straight away, but found itself falling behind through the rampant strobing of its skid-control and traction-control systems.

A quick flick of everything across into the hardest settings (dampers, throttle maps, steering, electronic safety nets off) and it became a new machine.

Despite its relatively small V8 and lack of all-wheel drive, the M5 has always been fast and even though the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8’s torque output is unchanged at 680Nm, it also still arrives at 1500rpm.

That makes for a car that not only reaches its peak power at 6000rpm, but is flexible and able to respond quickly anywhere above around 1300rpm.

Yes, you can tell there are more horses loose under the bonnet, but only when punching out of corners. Straight line sprinting to 100km/h? You’re barely going to notice the tenth of a second difference.

What you will notice is that the steering is remarkably taut. The area of the M5 that attracted the most criticism since its launch, the tighter steering system now only offers sharp reactions and proper, sports-sedan feedback.

Turn-in is so clean and crisp that it’s almost like the M5 has been born again – the way it should have been in the first place.

Its brakes, with optional carbon-ceramic rotors on duty here, are strong, but it’s the brilliance of the steering that initially stands out. It’s so much quicker into Estoril’s turn two compared to the standard car that you have to recalibrate your mind. It just bites so much harder, then tells you so much more through the wheel than it ever did.

But once the car settles into the corner, the rest of the chassis does the same thing, feeding information to the driver and biting and biting and biting.

And then there’s another shock. The active rear differential, with a set of clutch plates and an electric motor hanging off the left side of it, now has its own control unit. It measures even more pieces of data than it did before and no longer needs the quarter or half a turn of inside wheel slip before it reacts and feeds more juice to the outside one. Now it happens much closer to instantly.

The off-camber exit of turn two sees the M5 Competition Package try to push the stiffer springs down and it simply bites at the back. There has been an increasing focus on the M5’s traction shortcomings compared to the Quattro and AMG offerings, and the Competition Package delivers a strong retort.

It’s not just grip through one bend though, because it has the same poise and balance in the tight, steeply uphill turn three, which is an easy place to lose time in big slides. But the updated M5 doesn’t worry much about it, chewing up track with assurance.

Fast corners, slow corners, it doesn’t matter – the upgraded M5 does it all with more ease, while delivering a fizzing excitement through the cabin that the standard car doesn’t deliver.

The improved M5’s mid-corner feel is far closer to the last six-cylinder M5 than the car it’s actually derived from and it’s a huge step in the right direction from M -- and hopefully a sign of things to come from the M4.

But bear in mind we only sampled it on a racetrack. How the M5 Competition Package will react on bumpy Australian public roads is yet to be seen.

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