Making its public debut at the IAA 2017 is the 2018
BMW M5. It is based on the seventh generation 5 Series and was officially
revealed on August 21, 2017.
A 4.4-litre V8 bi-turbo engine powers the 2018 BMW
M5. While it is the same basic unit as the outgoing car’s, engineers have
carried out significant revisions. It gets newly developed turbochargers,
ultra-efficient indirect charge air cooling and increased fuel injection
pressure to help raise power and torque. The engine develops 600 hp at
5,600 – 6,700 rpm. The colossal 750 Nm of torque is available from
as low down as 1,800 rpm and fizzles out not until 5,600 rpm. It can achieve
speeds of 100 km/h in just 3.4 seconds and does 0 to 200 km/h in 11.1
seconds. Top speed, meanwhile, is an electronically limited 250 km/h, but the optional M Driver’s Package increases it to 305 km/h.
Power is sent to all four wheels via BMW’s xDrive
AWD setup. A central transfer case with multi-plate clutch distributes drive
between the front and rear axle, as required. The driver can turn the system
completely off and switch to just rear wheel drive with DSC turned off.
Visually, the M5 differs from the vanilla 5-series
thanks to larger aperture air inlets feeding the cooling systems and brakes.
There is also a rear diffuser and quad pipe setup at the back. The car rides on
19-inch light-alloy wheels in Orbit Grey and M-specific tyres. 20-inch rims are
offered as an option. In the standard spec, the 2018 BMW M5 also features
Merino leather and M seats with electric adjustment.
One place where the M5 is a clear winner is in the
pricing department as the model starts at € 117,900 in Germany (US$ 141,049) which is nearly € 4,000 (US$ 4,785) less than
its Stuttgart rival. Of course, Mercedes also offers a more affordable E63
4MATIC which undercuts the M5 in price, but it has less power and is a tenth of
a second slower to 100 km/h.
