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" ?
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" ?