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BMW M5 review video | evo

2012 BMW M5 First Drive - Motor Trend

Some things improve with age, like a bottle of 64-year-old Macallan. Like that fine spirit, the BMW M5 has also improved mightily over the years, with the all-new 2012 BMW M5 being the smoothest, most powerful, most elegant, and most refined M5 distillation to date.

Stylewise, there are a few subtle changes inside and out, but nothing major. The significant differences are hiding underneath the chiseled hood. The greatest one, of course, is the redesigned, heavy-breathing twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8 engine replacing the big V-10. Horsepower has been bumped up to 560 from 500, and torque makes a huge jump from 383 lb-ft to a massive 500.

The engine in the M5 is akin to that in the X5 and X6, but with a few tweaks to give it that extra oomph. The addition of BMW's throttle-less Valvetronic induction system makes the intake valve system infinitely variable, providing optimal fuel delivery for any driving situation. The valley-dwelling turbos have also been reworked for higher flow, increasing boost pressure from 22 to 26 psi. Placing the turbos between the V of the block does more than just improve packaging. The newly developed manifold system with exhaust ports in the valley and intake outboard means both the intake and exhaust tracks are now shorter, with a wider diameter to reduce pressure loss. That increases throttle response, reduces turbo lag, and improves efficiency.

The new M engine has BMW's Double VANOS infinitely variable valve timing system, which optimizes the engine's efficiency and generates high torque at low engine revs. BMW claims all 500 lb-ft of torque is available from a mere 1500 rpm all the way to 5750 rpm, with redline coming in at 7200. As with the 1 Series M, those numbers are a bit hard to believe, especially after driving the M5. We're sure under a controlled situation all that torque would be available, but in the real world, it's not. Mat the throttle while rolling down the highway and gear kickdown selection is perfect...then there's a delay before you really start moving. Yes, boys and girls, the new BMW M5 has a smidge of turbo lag. It's not terrible, but it's definitely there. It's more noticeable on the street than the track, where the M5 will show you what it's truly capable of.

BMW has simplified the driving settings, giving you three for steering, shifting, suspension, and traction control. Steering, shifting, and suspension settings range from normal (S1) to Sport (S2) to Sport Plus (S3), while traction is either normal, M Dynamic Mode (limited intervention), or everything off. To help you customize those settings for any driving situation, BMW has added another M button to the wheel, for M1 and M2. After the buttons are programmed, your M5 will have three distinct personalities available at the tip of your finger, or more accurately, your thumb.

The only transmission we were able to sample was BMW's seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual, which is unique to the M5. Much work was done to make sure this transmission could handle all the M5's newfound torque. Just like BMW's other DCT, it's ultra-quick, with shift harshness ranging from silky smooth to neck-snapping. Rumor has it the U.S. will be getting a manual. Not sure why we need it, but we'll take it. The M5 also sports a new electronically controlled locking rear differential that can vary between fully open to fully locked.

What does all this mean in terms of the driving experience? One word: magnificent. On the street in normal mode, the M5 is a pussycat, stealthily rolling down the road with a firm but forgiving ride, ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey. You don't hear or feel a single shift through the seven gears. Even in this mode, you can slap that GO pedal and you're gone (after a short delay while the turbos spool -- nothing 95 percent this car's buyers will notice or even care about).

Start dialing up the settings, and the car just gets better--to a point. I found the Sport Plus setting for the steering way too heavy, even on the track--and I like a heavy wheel. It felt very unnatural, like trying to twist a paddle in a barrel of molasses. The max setting for the shift harshness was too aggressive for me as well, unnecessarily hard with no real benefit.

On the track, you never notice any turbo lag, and you actually enjoy hearing those turbos spool up -- not in a silly tuner way, but in a subtle, refined manner. It's a pick-your-poison situation when you can turn some hot laps on a private facility. Do you want a "quick, but the car will save you no matter what" lap? No prob, keep it in normal mode, S1 for all. How about a "fast, get your attention more than a few times" lap? Got that, too -- sport mode, S2 across the board. Then there's the "hero or zero" lap setting: sport plus, S3, and almost not necessary, since S2 is very lenient in how silly you can get the car.

After sampling a variety of settings on my first few laps, I decided on S3 for the suspension since the track was so smooth; S2 for both steering and shift harshness; and MDM for traction. The limits of this vehicle are pretty stellar. A car that can move this kind of weight as quickly as it does, and slow it down as well as it does, feels awesome. The M5 doesn't drive nearly as big as it is -- the car manages to shrink around you. It is also very forgiving. It doesn't get upset if you lift mid-corner. It gives you a bit of a wiggle, but is completely controllable. Speaking of lifting, the M5 makes the most beautiful bark when you lift off the throttle from high rpm while transitioning to braking. The brakes never fade, but I had to give firmer pressure than expected in hard-braking situations.

That hero/zero setting isn't really that evil. As always, it depends on the driver. The M5 does what it's told suprisingly well. Hard, aggressive cornering will give you three different experiences, depending on the vehicle's settings and your right foot. The car has built-in understeer -- which is a good thing to do for almost all drivers -- meaning that if you dive into a corner too hard it keeps you on the tarmac if you brake enough. But as long as you respect the laws of physics and 500 lb-ft of torque, you can go into a corner cleanly, get the car to rotate and track through beautifully. It's a fantastic feeling when you get it right while taking a corner in a car that shouldn't be doing what it's doing. If you want to just get silly, the M5 will happily oblige with crisp turn-in precisely where you want it as you smoothly add throttle, making the M5 swing its tail at will with plumes of smoke trailing behind you.

Without a doubt, the new 2012 BMW M5 is better than its predecessor in every way. Some say they'll miss the high-rpm V-10 screaming under the hood. Not me. I'll take this subtle torque monster any day. Much like a purveyor of fine spirits, when an automaker starts with quality components, and adds time, insight, and desire, it's possible to create something amazing -- a vintage that can truly be savored. With the new M5, BMW has done just that.

Beemer B773ER;537975 escreveu:


















...Old is NEW again. :eusa_clap

Back to its old style, back to a V8, ....Back on top!

We drive: Heavy-metal BMW M5 - IOL Motoring | IOL.co.za

We drive: Heavy-metal BMW M5



My first thought after driving the new M5 for the first time was what the next M5 would be like - a tad premature, you may say, given that this car has at least a half decade's lifespan ahead of it.

But I was wondering whether there'd be some paradigm shift in future, a new direction to make the next car significantly lighter. In the past few generations the M5 and its competitors have been involved in an intense power-uber-alles battle which has produced, in its fifth iteration, an M5 wielding 412kW and 680Nm of automotive anger. Those are quite eye-watering figures for a luxury sedan but so is its weight, which has crept up to a corpulent 1870kg.

For the next generation will we continue seeing ever-fatter luxury sedans with ever-more-powerful engines, or will someone take a leaf out of the Lotus school of power-to-weight thinking and start using more lightweight materials such as aluminium or carbon-fibre? Just wondering

For now we have a heavy car with a heavy-hitting engine, making the M5 the most powerful M car ever. The new engine is already something of a paradigm shift for BMW because it's the first M5 to be turbocharged - a concept once sneered at by the Bavarian firm but now embraced with open arms if you look at how many of its cars use the technology.

Compared to the high-revving normally-aspirated five-litre V10 it replaces, the new M5's 4.4-litre, twin-turbo V8 is not only considerably more muscular (the old car produced 373kW and 520Nm) but the power's available much more instantly, like flicking a switch. And it's claimed to be 30 percent more fuel-efficient as well, which according to BMW was the primary reason for going the turbo route.

It's sad to see the demise of that glorious-sounding V10, which will go down as one of the all-time classic engines. The racy rasp as it revved to its 8250rpm redline was spine-chilling.

Thankfully, my fears that turbocharging would strangle the sound of the new M5 proved unfounded. Though it revs to a lower 7200rpm the V8 engine makes a heavy-metal holler that's perfectly in tune with the violence of the acceleration - 0-100km/h in 4.4 seconds and on to 200 in just 13, according to BMW's figures. When you come off the throttle quickly there's also a loud "brupp!" from the exhaust that'll shake the thorns off a cactus at 20 metres.

Power delivery's instant. At sea level, where I drove it, there's no hint of lag and the throttle pedal feels like a trigger. It's possibly too instant, as non-petrolheaded as that might make me sound, as you spend much of the time gently feathering the throttle rather than having the visceral satisfaction of booting the pedal to the floor.

On some of the twisty Spanish mountain passes where we drove the M5 at its international media launch, it often felt like too much car for a public road. Any half-enthusiastic throttle treatment would cause the rear tyres to momentarily screech and the stability control to kick in a split-second later. The car felt penned-in, an angry beast twitching and snorting to be released from its cage.

BMW obliged by giving us a few laps around the Ascari race circuit, where the beast's legs could be stretched and its limits probed. Here the car delivered everything one expected of the M badge. With its suspension, steering and stability control responses all set to "Mad Max" mode (this can be programmed to take place at a single press of a button on the steering wheel), the M5 lapped the track with commendable athleticism for such a big car.

It's an intense experience. The brutality of the acceleration is always front of mind, as is the tendency for powerslides at the slightest provocation, showing little respect for the width of the 295mm rear tyres. The dual clutch seven-speed auto transmission, which has replaced the unloved SMG gearbox in the old M5, is a smooth-shifting treat that swaps gears super-fast without ever feeling jerky.

But you're always aware of the M5's mass; it's not a car to be flicked around like an M3. This is a ballistic grand tourer, not an agile sports car.

The wonder of the car is how it morphs into a refined and comfy-riding luxury cruiser when you tone down its Mad Max settings - together with your own adrenalin levels. When driving with a light foot I even managed a consumption of 10.5 litres per 100km (compared to 39 on the track!).

The new M5 will be the star attraction on BMW's stand at the Johannesburg Motor Show, starting this weekend, and the car will go on sale here in January at a price still to be announced. - Star Motoring

Very nice acceleration run with the new M5. You can also hear all the sounds very well.

As for the performance, nothing ground-braking but excellent for the price. Seems exactly as fast as CLS63 PP (which costs considerably more in EU). 100-200km/h will be in 8,0-8,5s range (Panamera Turbo 9,5-10,0s). 0-200km/h probably around 12,5s. This all is considering a flat road in the video, but Chris Harris measurement of 0-100mph in 8,7s is in line with it.

BMW M5 (2011) CAR review | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online



Car Magazine's review.

BMW M5 (2011) CAR review
By Chris Chilton

First Drives

03 October 2011 10:32


The new October 2011 issue of CAR Magazine stars the new F10-era BMW M5 on the cover - and we gathered together the greatest M cars ever made to find out where the new 2011 M5 fits in the canon. Don't miss the 20-page M5 special. And read on for our first drive review of the turbocharged BMW M5.

Turbochargers? On a BMW M5? What next, an amphibious Ferrari that runs on hamster dung?
Well of course you might prefer to have no M5 at all. The fact is the old BMW M5's V10 was thirstier than Oliver Reed after a sauna and that’s just not compatible with current fuel prices, not to mention BMW’s increasingly ecologically minded philosophy. So the new F10-spec BMW M5 gets a turbocharged V8 that’s even more powerful than the old V10, but 30% more fuel efficient too.

Is this the same blown eight that’s fitted to the M-cars that dare not speak their name?
You mean the X5M and X6M? It’s based on the same V8, but modified with a compression boost from 9.3 to 10.0:1, a 0.3bar increase in boost pressure (now 1.5 bar) and BMW’s clever Valvetronic valvegear system that does away with a conventional throttle valve.

It’s also mounted to a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, rather than the six-speed auto in the SUVs. Power climbs fractionally, from 547bhp at 6000rpm in the X6 to 552bhp at the same revs in the saloon. And of course that means it makes 52bhp more than the old V10, plus a third as much torque again. The old M5 rustled up 384lb ft at 6100rpm but the new one churns out 500lb ft from just 1500rpm…

500lb ft of torque! Sounds more like a 550d than an M5. What’s this new engine like?
Technically, you can’t fault it. Drive like a nun facing a totting-up ban and it’ll deliver near 30mpg economy, but summon the full 552bhp and it’ll hit 62mph in 4.4sec, down from the 4.7sec the V10 needed. With so much torque available, it’s now so much easier to go fast. There’s no need to go anywhere near the disappointingly low 7200rpm redline, yet an extra kick at 6000rpm means you’ll still want to, presuming you’ve got enough space.

On the downside it neither feels nor sounds anywhere near as special as the old V10. Think of the Bullit car chase, when the in-car action flicks from the gravelly roar of McQueen’s Mustang to the subdued rumble of Bill Hickman’s Charger. That’s what jumping from ’04 to ’11 M5s feels like.

But any disappointment is tempered by the vastly better gearbox. The DCT tranny is much quicker and infinitely smoother than the clunky old seven-speed single-clutch SMG transmission fitted to the V10 M5, which paused between changes like Ron Dennis being interviewed via satellite link-up. The old car’s ludicrous 11 gearshift modes have been trimmed too. This time there are just three manual and three auto modes, and a full-bore upchange in the quickest setting is no longer accompanied by a sound like the car has just eaten itself.

And what about the chassis? Is the new M5 a hooligan or a refined GT?
It’s whatever you want it to be. The adaptive dampers and non-runflat rubber (19s standard, 20s optional) deliver incredible ride comfort on all but the stiffest of the three settings, yet the steering (old fashioned hydraulic, rather than electric as on lesser Fives) is far more feelsome than the regular saloon’s or even the old M5’s.

The kerbweight has actually risen by 115kg, but you’d be hard pressed to tell from the way you can pick off corners. The front end is so accurate for such a big car and the body control is superb. And this time there are two M buttons on the steering wheel allowing you to store two different combinations of throttle response, gearshift mapping and damper calibration. Point to point, there’s no doubt that new M5 would leave the old one choking on its exhaust fumes - or at least it would be choking if CO2 emissions hadn’t been slashed from 344g/km to 232g/km.

Oh yeah, and the hooligan bit. The combination of all that torque and a brand new fully active M differential mean it’ll still do the big drift as long as you’ve got the turbos spooled up. But traction is so spectacularly good, the tail is never going to swing round unless you’ve sent out an RSVP. And this time there are some proper brakes too. The old M5’s sliding caliper set-up was prone to massive fade if subjected to a couple of big autobahn stops, but the new six-pots hugging the front discs should hopefully solve that one. We didn’t get the chance to mash them from 150mph, but they certainly feel useful at more sensible speeds, with good pedal feel too.

And how will everyone know it’s a new BMW M5 parked on my drive and not just a 550i?
They’ll probably never guess unless you park it arse-out. Do that and your neighbours will be treated to the now trademark quad pipes, modest M badge and even more modest bootlid lip spoiler. Other hints include wing vents (now featuring a rather nasty chrome outline) and an M-sport front spoiler. But the M5 has never been about showing off, and that low-key appearance means you can get away with using more of the performance, more of the time.

Having said that, they could have made more of an effort with the cabin. The ergonomics and build quality are fine, the optional multi-adjustable seats are superb and it’s just as practical as any other 5-series, although there’s no Touring estate version planned. But AMG and Audi always seem to make their hotter models feel more special inside.

BMW M5: the CAR verdict
There’s no getting away from the fact that some of the wickedness of the old V10-powered M5 has been lost. Sadly, huge, screaming naturally aspirated engines are simply out of step with modern times.

The good news is that in every other sense, the new M5 is very much a better car than the one it replaces. It’s sharper and easier to drive, faster, has a massively better gearbox and, even if you couldn’t care less about fuel costs, you’ll probably appreciate not having to stop every 200 miles to fill the thing up. It’s one step back, two steps forwards.