2006 BMW M5 V10The M5 is, and always has been, the distillation of everything that makes BMW cars special. M division engineers, endowed with a streak of lunacy, take an already great BMW 5-series car and add power, improve its handling, and create a sedan that takes on dedicated sports cars. You get the feeling these guys share a kinship with those fun-loving, society-be-damned types who put a few special ingredients into a still and create moonshine. In this case, it’s the new, 500-hp BMW M5, the moonshine of cars.The differences between a regular-production 5-series BMW and the no-holds-barred M5 have never been greater. First and foremost is the new engine. In today’s automotive world of economies of scale, mergers, and collaborations, it is rare for an automaker to design an engine that is entirely new, but the 90-degree, 5.0-liter V-10 is an engine that must have skipped kindergarten because it doesn’t share any of its parts. The high-revving V-10 was made for the M5 exclusively, and it makes the car feel as special as anything built outside of Maranello.Press the button marked “power” next to the shifter, and you get 500 horsepower at 7750 rpm and 384 pound-feet of torque at 6100 rpm. That’s 106 more horsepower than the previous M5’s V-8 and 175 more than a 545i’s. Don’t press the button, and the intake restricts itself to 400 horses. On paper the rpm at which maximum torque is achieved seems a bit high, but variable valve timing and individual throttles for each cylinder allow the engine to enjoy low-end grunt and midrange power. There’s almost always enough power on tap to induce midcorner oversteer at the briefest stab of the throttle. The V-10 sounds great, too. Tear away from a city stoplight and run the V-10 to its 8250-rpm redline, and you’ll leave nascent car enthusiasts in your wake.Aside from the new engine there is a new transmission—the third generation of BMW’s sequential manual gearbox (SMG)—that takes lessons learned from Formula 1 and applies them to the M5. BMW does not offer a conventional manual transmission, and that seems counter to its Ultimate Driving Machine marketing mantra. Although this latest SMG is faster and smoother than ever, a skilled driver could achieve less jerky shifts.
