the best fake M5 sighting ever...you have got to read this - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

Jacob Lee · 11th March 2002, 04:16

ok, first - most humble apologies if I am mistakenly bashing the poor victim here because i've somehow missed some key bit of trivia about the existence of some weird legit M5 variants. but if not, then OH MY GOD!....

here's what i saw today on Sunnyvale-Saratoga going towards El Camino, around 5:00pm - just as I am pulling out of a corner Chevron, I see a arctic silver BMW go by - first thing I notice is the wheels, M5 OEM type so I'm thinking "cool! an M5. i'll just zip up there and pull a Dan and hope my crazy waving doesn't freak this guy out".

as i speed up to catch up to this guy, i now see the M5 badge AND a Dinan badge on his rear. but uh oh, red flag waving - only one twin pipe exhaust on the left side. we come to a red light and stop side by side, the guy and his wife do the horse with blinders move and refuse to look anywhere more than two inches left or right of straight ahead while i'm waving and rolling my window down.

couple more weird indicators now pop up - around the front quarter panel area, this guy has side vents ala an M3. plus, on those vents he has little M5 emblems. i didn't see whether he had the M5 emblems on the side moldings or not. i could past his wife and another big red flag - no NAV display on his dash. unless i am quite mistaken, all 2000 to current M5s had the NAV built in, not an option to be ordered like for the 528/540.

so, to sum up - this guy has an arctic silver E39 body, most likely a 2001 as his license plate started with 4Sxxxxx, which indicates purchase probably sometime last April or so. side vents put in with little M5 badges, a rear Dinan badge that i am 99% positive he did not earn, and rear M5 badge. he also had what looked just like M5 side mirrors, and the rear bumper was a weird cross between an M5 and a 528/540. the rear bumper molding looked just like on an M5 - curving around from the sides and then stops so there is nothing in the center. however, the rear skirt looked just like a 540.

couple things re: the Dinan badge i am positive about - this guy definitely does not have Dinan suspension nor any sort of Dinan engine mod like a 540 supercharger. i've personally heard DanB's 540 w/ Dinan supercharger so i know exactly how beast loud it should sound and with my windows rolled down, i could hear this guys engine and exhaust while i was next to him, both at idle and in motion. engine noise was way too quiet and the exhaust sounded stock. i now know exactly where to look when viewing from the side up close to see the yellow Koni shocks that comes with the Dinan suspension, and he didn't have them either. therefore, i've done the math and there is just no way he can have 10 points to have a legit Dinan badge on an M5 without the big ticket items of suspension or wheels (5 pts each), supercharger or exhaust.

giving benefit of the doubt, i first thought maybe this guy had one of those single side twin pipe aftermarket exhausts for the M5. if so, it sounds as quiet as a stock 528/540 exhaust then; and i thought all the aftermarket ones were louder?

while we were at the first red light, naturally i just had to have a little fun. so when it turned green i punched it a little and zip right ahead of him, let him see my rear with true M5 and Dinan badges and then moved over to the far right lane to let him catch up and then paced him. as luck would have it, the next light up ahead turned red too, so the guy came up on my side again at the light. i tried making eye contact again but neither the husband or wife (late forties, early fifties age I would say) looked anywhere but straight ahead.

so i paced him for another half mile or so and then gave up and went home to write this. the thing that made me laugh to the point of tears wasn't so much that here was another person pretending to be an M5 - it was the sheer extent this guy went to try and pose as a fake M5 without really having a shot at ever doing so with anyone really knowledgable about BMWs and/or M5s because of the two glaring giveaways - the single side twin pipe exhaust and the fabricated side vents.

what did he think? that the side vents would make him look "cooler" ?

M5Laser · 11th March 2002, 04:21

hahaha that is funny. Sounds like no M5

But if the guy wants to modify his car to his own personal tastes, then I say go for it. But it it's not an M5, or not worked on by Dinan... don't put on the badges!

Jacob Lee · 11th March 2002, 05:04

i'm actually not really bashing him for trying to pose as an M5 per se. i don't think i'd go so far as to say i'm in the 'imitation is a sincere form of flattery' camp, but i'm not indignant or anything about how this guy is passing himself off as an M5.

what i'm really sorta bashing him for is how far he went but how incompetently he ended up doing it.

i mean, ok - want to be a plain poseur? fine, stick on an M5 badge on a 528/540. easy enough, cheap, accomplishes the purpose for the general masses out there as i'm sure lots of non-BMWphiles won't know any better.

or go full bore - get the wheels, M5 aero kit, AND a twin dual pipe exhaust. try to really pass as an M5 to even other knowledgeable BMW owners.

but this guy - he's in this weird middle camp that I don't feel bad about laughing at because he's clearly gone to a length farther than just sticking a badge on; but with those vents, even if he had everything else, he's doomed to ever pass as a real M5 to any knowledgable owner. therefore, what he's doing is trying to pass as an M5 to the general population - but if so, all he had to do was just stick the badge on. instead he's paid to put in a twin pipe single side exhaust, those vents cut in to look just like an E46 M3 vents, little M5 emblems on those vents, the mirrors, rear moldings, etc.

i guess i'm laughing more at the general stupidity of this guys specific attempt rather than saying anything about posing in general.

Bart Carter · 11th March 2002, 05:31

Did M5s ever come in arctic silver?

EBMCS03 · 11th March 2002, 05:57

Hahaha thats really bad! Oh boy...

atomic80 · 11th March 2002, 06:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Bart Carter
Did M5s ever come in arctic silver?

Nope...they never were offered in arctic silver except maybe if you had it ordered through the BMW individual program.

Black M5 · 11th March 2002, 06:34

I would like to know what crossed his mind when you pulled ahead of him and him realizing that it was no fake... Probably oh no

this is the real thing... Let me act as normal as possible and avoid him

I once saw a silver M5 drive by me as i was emerging into the same road. Nice spoliers and 19" 5 spoke wheels.. Hmm very nice but wait a minute..... ONLY 2 Exhaust TIPS !!!!! I got pissed and dropped it second and nailed it to the ground... Over took him and layed down 10 feet of rubber upshifting into third.. Take that from the REAL DEAL you fake wanna be

livenupe · 11th March 2002, 06:52

Man,

All this talk about folks frontin' and posin' reminds me of the mid 80's when they had kits to convert Fieros and F-Body Firebirds to Testa Rossa look-alikes. Hmmmm, I wander if that's wher our friend Dinan M5 got his start.

Ooops. I didn't mean to say that.

Zman · 11th March 2002, 06:54

I have one of those guys in my area, he will never establish eye contact with me!!

M5Ted · 11th March 2002, 08:55

I have noticed the same thing here at school. Guys spend thousands of dollars to build a replica, but don't invest in the most noticible differences. There is a 318i here with full M technic kit and even Dakar yellow paint, which is not an option for the 318i. Additionally, he has the M3 badge and M3 mirrors. The thing that made me laugh was that the car still had the stock single exhaust pipe and wheels that are spectifc to the 318i. Whats the deal? He probably spent 8-9K for the body kit and paint, why not another grand for wheels and exhaust? I guess for some it is all about looks.

Ted
'95 real M3
ex 1988 M5
P.S. Once I had a new 5 series owner ask me why I was trying to pose as an M5? What a dumba$s.