The Ecstatic Legacy of the BMW M5
It’s the super sedan that turned the car world on its toes and made BMW the ultimate German Sportscar Masters. This ballistic 4 door sedan proved to the world that you didn’t need a coupe or a two-door sports car to have fun on the track or on the twisties. Keep reading as I discuss the glorious history of the luxury lap time setter, the ultimate driving machine, the undercover family sports car, the BMW M5.
It all started with the desire of BMW to beat Porche at Le Mans in the 1970s. They needed a mid-engine sports car that could do the work and boy oh boy did the fortune become true for them, Dallara built the chassis and Lamborghini was on board to design and finish up the details of the car, that we now know as the M1.
But since the rules changed in Le Mans, they sadly couldn’t even race this car. But Sweet engines do need sweet homes right. So BMW decided to come out with a 4-door sedan and fitted the car with the M1 race engine. The New car was named e28 M5 and was hand-built exclusively by the Motorsport division of BMW.
Then came the e34, the second generation of M5, producing a hefty 311 hp from the S38 straight-six motor. The car was still hand-built by the Motorsport division and took almost 2 weeks to roll out. While the car was capable to seat 5 people, it was also capable enough to run hard and give the experiences nearest to that of a sportscar
In 1998 came the third edition, the e39 M5. This was the car that had a big change from the previous editions; the design of the car was altered, gone were the old days of individual round lamps, and it was the time to introduce the mighty 8 cylinder motors. The third edition was fitted with a lunatic, road-dominant V8 engine that had 394 horses under the hood, always ready to move. The headlamps were now called the angel eyes, and the design continued to attract the masses like a magnet.
After the e39 model was stopped, a year later in 2004, came the e60 M5, the craziest edition of the M5 till now, the car that inherently had the mafia appeal to itself and could destroy any rival car of its segment on the drag strip. Why do I say so? Because this was the first car to use a V10 gasoline engine, a V10 in a four-door family sedan. One could use this to drop their kids off at school or just maybe go to a drag strip and nail a 0–100km/hr in just 4.7 seconds. Just to get the context of this monstrous engine right, it was a massive 5L engine producing 500 horses, an engine that was so powerful that it could blow itself up if not taken care of.
Of course, this meant a ton of reliability complaints for BMW, but frankly, from the perspective of a true car lover, the driving experience this car gave was something out of this world and honorable enough that one could add to their CV. After all who would not love to get a taste of the monstrous V10 grunt.
This remained in the market for a while, until in 2011 the F10 variant was revealed. One could easily see and tell that the F10 variant was much bulkier than its predecessor, but BMW had packed the variant with enough goodies to not let the car lovers down. It was the first twin-turbocharged V8 M5 with a dual-clutch transmission, packing a total of 560 horses under the hood. The car was a magnificent piece of luxury, yet contained the power to drift like a queen and burn those rear meats.
Then in 2017 came the most prominent and significant version of M5 that is the F90 m5, a twin-turbo V8 with an All wheel drive train and a torque converter gearbox transmission, overall pushing the power to 600 horses. Torque went up to a staggering 750 Nm. This meant that the car felt no fear to race a supercar as well, yet fulfilled the demands of a daily city driver.
This according to me is one of the most prominent car lineages in the automobile world. With every single version beating its previous version, truly showing the commitment of BMW to present the best driving experience one can have, yet not compromise on daily needs.
What BMW is capable of, is very apparent from the lineage that I just told here, the kind of driving capabilities this lineup has, far surpasses the line of magnificence. It shows how dedicated the group has been with the cars they have made, focusing on every aspect of the car, and the result of these years of dedication and love for building such art pieces is that the experience of driving these cars not only puts an initial smile on the face but is also more than enough to make the driver go bonkers and fall in love with the car.
The mentality of beating their own product every time they come out with a newer one is what makes this car brand so special. At the same time, the benchmark of how a car drives and feels to drive has been pushed to a whole new domain by BMW, with even higher expectations of the people who love this brand, engaging us to think about the future masterpieces BMW has lined up for us.