New 2014 BMW M5 review, test drive

    BMW M5 facelift sees few styling updates and new safety features; launching here in late 2014.

    Published on Mar 13, 2014 07:45:00 PM

    15,768 Views

    Make : BMW
    Model : M5

    Stare long and hard at this frosty blue BMW M5 and you will be able to tell that it’s the facelift. You'll pick out the 'square' LED rings, twin-spoke theme to the kidney grille (a design feature of 'M' cars), the massive 'M' wheels and the tweaked tail-lamps. Admittedly, it isn't much of a facelift even by mild facelift standards, but most of the changes to this car are under the skin. In Germany, you can now opt for the Competition Pack that raises power by 14.7bhp to 567bhp (although torque remains the same) with spring and damping rates firmer by 20 percent. The stabiliser bars are 15 percent stiffer and the steering rack is 10 percent quicker and you can opt for serving dish-sized carbon-ceramic brakes (the gold calipers are the giveaway). How much better is the car for these improvements? We went to Munich to hammer it over de-restricted autobahns, hopped over the Alps to Austria for lunch and threw it around a few back-roads to gauge exactly that.

    As always, the twin-turbo, 4.4-litre V8 is an atomic bomb in disguise. BMW claims a 4.2sec 0-100kph time which is impressive considering this is a rear-wheel drive car and as such, is limited by available traction. The 69.3kgm of torque kicks in at 1500rpm, stays that way till 5750rpm at which point 567bhp takes over and blows you to kingdom come. As a result, the top-end of the rev-band is even more mental than before – from around 5000rpm till its 7250rpm redline, you get a scream in your ears and an incredibly hair-raising run up till the limiter cuts in. Try a redline run in the higher gears and you better be wearing a diaper – it's that quick, exciting and scary. The engine pulls in one long, smooth rush and the seven-speed dual clutch transmission snaps through gears with mild thumps (depending on the level of gearshift aggressiveness you've dialled up on the transmission). Tunnel vision is the order of the day and this happens even on a broad six-lane autobahn! We were limited to 240kph thanks to the winter tyres fitted on our car. Normal M5s (if you can call it that) are restricted to a 250kph top-speed and if you ask nicely and pay a fee, BMW will unlock this and give you a 305kph top speed. In a sedan!

    The problem then is that the M5 weighs 1,945kg. This isn't an issue in a straight line (the engine simply overcomes the mass) but when you throw an M5 at a corner, it feels its size.

    It feels broad from the driver's seat and most back roads simply feel too small for an enthusiastically driven F10. Yes, some of the squirming under hard cornering and braking may have been down to the less than optimal winter tyres, but you can't shake off the feeling of the sheer momentum you are carrying around.   

    BMW Cars

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