M5 Launch Event - Ascari Race Resort

[Ruebdo]

i did try guys but they had to offer it to one of there customers. I hear its rubbish anyway

[mattCSLnut]

Originally Posted by Ruebdo

i did try guys but they had to offer it to one of there customers. I hear its rubbish anyway

Fair enough I think you might be right

[AlexGTT]

Originally Posted by shimmy

So Alex, would you buy one?

Sorry chaps. Busy in work for a few days. I'm producing my full report at the moment. Funny how a couple of days cooling off period changes your opinion. I'll have an answer for you soon Shim.

[Yanto]

Originally Posted by glendog74

WTF?!

You phishing, account hacking, editing MOFO !!

[AlexGTT]

Sorry for the essay chaps but the car deserves it. Part 1 of the report below. Part 2 for track impressions to follow because you'll fall asleep reading this bit.

So, after all the hype, expectation and excitement of being invited on the event, what are my impressions of the new M5? I decided to wait a couple of days before writing these words. It’s quite easy to get carried away on such an event, putting forward all sorts of purchase and justification scenarios. Back at work with time to reflect, I found it much easier to consider what I’ve learned in the cold light of day. I can tell you, what I think about the car has not changed but the answer to the question “would I buy one?” has. More on that later.


On the road.

I tried the car on road first. From the moment I clapped eyes on the thing I had serious “want” issues. To say this model moves things on from the previous generation is an understatement. For a start the paint finish, at least on these press production examples was way better than recent BMW’s. Absolutely no sign of the dreaded orange peel. They tell me these have not had any special treatment and the production cars rolling off are identical in every way. There were at least twenty M5’s there, all different colours and all perfect. The interior finish and feel are amazing. What a place to sit. Way more comfortable than my M3 seats and major step on from the E60.

The sat nav and I drive are much more like the current M3 system. That alone makes it vastly better than the E60 I drive. Far more generic, easier to use and better screen menus. Some of the options through the nav screen are all round cameras for parking, junction sighting cameras (very useful), night vision cameras, lane departure warning, etc. Just the same as normal 5 Series but all good stuff. If I was buying I wouldn’t spec half the level of these cars. They had the lot, included heated steering wheels, soft closure doors/boot and so on. Totally unnecessary in my view, despite being a luxury motor. The M development engineers there told me it’s amazing how much heavier the car is with all the extras bolted on. Like me, they’d choose the bare minimum but they know this market sector demands all the fancy bits.

On the road the car is incredible! How it weighs in at nearly two tons I don’t know because it never feels like it. I recently drove a new 520d. It, not surprisingly, fell like a bus to me. Not in it’s performance but the way it handled. You knew it was a lump and it sure felt like it. The M5 is heavier, carrying far more speed everywhere and it was effortless. You could place it to within millimetres of your intended line and it nail it every single time without trying. You know your in a physically big car but it’s so weird how you could swear the front and rear wings are closer to you. The 520d’s are narrower but it doesn’t feel like it. That’s the genius of the M department. They produce cars from base models that shrink around you and respond better than any other manufacturer. You can confidently thread an M5 through gaps a 520d gets you worried about and at twice the speed!

The steering is great. Adjustable through three settings, just like my M3 but they’ve significantly improved it. I think it’s the steering weight and feedback that’s better. They have obviously fine honed the settings and with more time to tune. It’s a proper step forward.

The suspension and damping are perfectly tuned. Again, three different settings just like the M3 and again it’s an improvement. Comfort makes the car like a real luxury cruiser. The most comfortable 5 series I’ve ever driven but the handling is still beautifully judged. Sport is just that and perfect for any road conditions. No crashing over bumps but firm. Sport Plus is the setting for a good surface when your pushing on a bit but even when the road surface breaks up you get no horrible jarring.

We drove a section of road near Rhonda when I had the car in sport plus across the settings. We were at a fair pace. It got a bit roller coaster, narrow and was a great challenging stretch. The surface started well but worsened to the point where I could see areas of broken up road surface and thinking “this’ll hurt”. Waiting for the thump and a bit of a twitchy moment.................nothing. It didn’t even notice and neither did I. Amazing.

Brakes? Well, finally an M5 with brakes that look like they mean business. But do they I hear you ask? On the road absolutely. Progressive, near silent, excellent pedal feel and very powerful. Such a difference to the E60. The confidence you need right from the top of the pedal is here at last on an M5. In fact make that any M. We were told there’s a ceramic set up arriving as an option soon but I seriously doubt it’ll ever justify the cost unless lots of track work is the plan but more on that later. If you fade these on the road your certifiable! Maybe multiple heavy stops from 150-200mph might be a different story but if you do that anywhere on a road, well, read the previous sentence again.

The straightline performance is epic. If you thought an E60 M5 was quick this is another league. It revs to 7,500rpm and pulls hard all the way. It doesn’t feel like the end of the ride a 6,500 like so many other turbo motors. It’s got instant warp speed from anywhere in the rev range and that’s the significant improvement over the V10. The power is massive from 1500rpm but does step up in a linear fashion until mid range when it just goes bonkers! Very M Power N/A engine feel which I was not expecting. First and second gears don’t count so much as it’s all over so quickly. Third and fourth gears are where it’s at. They do all the real World short stab overtaking moves and the car is ballistic in those small “can I pass” opportunity windows. Just where you need it, like overtaking on a superbike (not really but you know what I mean). Absolutely zero lag. There’s some very technically interesting developments to counter lag, including the reason for exhaust manifolds/ turbos in the V but I’ll leave that for another time. All I really know is fuck me does it work! For a big, heavy car it’s laugh out loud fast. For anyone used to M motors, you know all about throttle response and despite the turbo aspiration the M5 is no different. As instant as any M motor I’ve driven and disconnection between pedal and action that usually frustrates me in turbo motors isn’t there. All very clever stuff and it’s been a success. Trust me, you’ll love it. On the Autobahn it’s going to be superb but you’ll need to factory de-limit because the ride up to 155 is going to be very short and feel like you’ve hit a brick wall!

The noise is.................erm, weird if I’m frank with you. In comfort mode you hardly hear it which is great when that’s what you want. In sport and sport plus it’s gruff, almost Scooby off beat and with a turbine whine in the background up to mid range. Then, at about the same time as the performance goes up a level to “fuckin’ mental” it starts to scream it’s head off with a very Yank muscle car big V8 edge to the noise. Quite addictive in a hooligan sort of way. Following a couple of other M5’s in convoy I was very pleasantly surprised that you could hear a beautiful big V8 noise coming from the cars in front when they booted it. That was despite my windows being closed and me giving it the mumbo as well. That pleased me because I wasn’t expecting it and it’s nice to hear in these days of conservative vehicle silencing. I expect there’s all sorted of valve things opening in the exhaust in sport/sport plus modes. Ah, one other thing on the noise. I read Chris Harris’s Evo article and he mentioned a kind of eruption of anti-lag/rally exhaust type noises when you come off throttle and between gear changes in sport/sport plus modes. It does exactly that and it’s flippin’ great!

The gearbox is brilliant. Again, DCT in the M3 is very similar but they have made improvements. The quickest “Sport Plus” setting, foot flat full rev up-shifts produce changes of such ferocity you wonder how the diff ever survives. They are brutal and instant to the touch of the paddle. And that’s where the improvement is over the M3’s DCT. Even flat out up shifts in the quickest setting are not as instant to the touch of the paddle in the M3. Auto mode is excellent and totally seamless.
In conclusion to the road manners of the M5, this really is all the car you will ever need on road if you absolutely have to buy a big four door saloon. Having driven the Audi RS6 I can confidently predict that the M5 will eat it for breakfast in this sector of the market. It’s so much better in nearly every department. The crossover between extreme luxury limo, good enough to transport the mother-in-law to that long awaited flight to as far away from you as possible, in serene silence, to the celebratory hoon home over your favourite road at warp factor 5 has never been covered so well before. And that chaps, is all you need to know about the new M5, at least on the road. Right then and there did I want one? Yes. Did I start justifying the reason and calculating the ways to change the M3 for one? Yes. Was it worth the inevitable depreciation hit? Quite possibly.

You’ll have to wait for the track report and my final final decision on possible purchase.

[Yanto]

Great write up mate

[northernjim]

Fantastic report mate, plenty of pics, videos and how were the hookers in part 2 please?

[Bounce]

Nice write up Alex.

[Trawler]

Love the write up looking forward to pt2.

By the way how many M5s does one have to buy to get invited to such an event?

[O'Neill]

Enjoyed that, when is part 2