In work at the moment so if someone wants to embed the pics etc. Feel free to do so.
"What is it?
The BMW M5. The fast saloon car after which the whole genre is named. Its internal code is F10M – the first time an M car has been given a specific internal name.
Technical highlights********* *
Twin turbochargers, with unspecific modifications to both intake and exhaust systems. Official response to the question of power output is: 'Do you really think we would give it less than an X6M?'. An X6M has 547bhp. There's a seven-speed DCT dual clutch transmission with three different shift speeds and a fully automatic mode. Saloon only for now.
What’s it like to drive?
Is turbocharging a highlight? When it makes a car this flexible and plain accelerative, it has to be. Yes, the near-insanity of the old V10 makes way for slightly reduced throttle response, but it’s marginal. On a Swedish lake, you can still make tiny adjustments to sustain that all-important 1km drift. Does it feel turbocharged? A little bit. Does it make enough induction noise? No. But this isn’t the finished car, the BMW M-gurus insist that the final product will be different in this respect.
I only drove the car on snow, ice and the occasional patch of asphalt. It felt like an M-car in the correct sense: purposeful, but not too aggressive. The steering, chassis and powertrain each have three modes: comfort, sport and sport-plus, giving a myriad of options. The MDM (M Driving Mode) brings a higher threshold DSC intervention that requires steering correction from the driver, or you spin, It works brilliantly. Switch it all off and you have a circa 560bhp, rear-wheel-drive saloon with an LSD. If you can’t enjoy that, you’re a wally.
I can’t tell you much about ride comfort and steering yet, except that with the suspension set to comfort the car is compliant but never soft. The steering is faster than in a regular BMW 5-series.
How does it compare?
The Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG is too good to be a walkover, but this M5 will take some beating. For all current and recent E60 M5 owners know this: the new M5 has a gearbox as fast as the E60s that also works properly in Auto mode. It has a bigger fuel tank than a regular 5 (somewhere between 70 and 80 litres, but they won’t say exactly what – I’m cleverly guessing 75) which with the much improved economy gives a real range of 400 miles. So: range, gearbox, torque – BMW has listened, all of the E60’s vices have been sorted.
Anything else I need to know?
I can’t really comment on the styling because the car was disguised. On narrow winter tyres it’s lacking that delicious signature rear-axle camber, but the flared front wings give just the right suggestion of clout. Expect bespoke seats, masses of M badges, an oil temperature gauge and, hopefully, an M5 specific steering wheel.
To me this car feels like its DNA has been drawn from the E39 M5. It’s a less frenzied machine than the one it replaces: it has torque and flexibility but still the killer pace every M5 owner requires. Something will need to go badly wrong between now and the end of 2011 for the finished car to be anything but a triumph."
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Just saw this on Jalopnik and wow, what a car! Seeing that article confirms most of what I expected from the M5, and hopefully will help silence the neighsayers.
Also regarding the exhaust - even if thats close to the factory exhaust that will come with it; think about how much throttle you would be giving a twin turbo 550+ hp car on ice. Very low load on the engine, very low rpm = very quiet car. I for one was listening to the exhaust note and not the exhaust volume and I personally loved what I heard.
I do like the raw feeling of SMG, but DCT is so smooth as changing gears... feels like automatic on steroids. I guess no more clunking jerky buckling feelings when changing gears... I kinda like that about the smg.. letting the foot off the gas a little when changing gears was the habit i had to learn but with DCT, no interactions but to just smash the gas and just focus on changing gears.
It is fascinating reading the updates on the M5.
In a time when fuel prices rise sharply, it is a pleasure to communicate with others that share this passion.
Track time in this new M5 will require some serious driver re-educating. The DCT version is definitely a product to consider seriously.
Thanks to all of you better informed than myself. I appreciate this thread.
Well, this is pretty amazing...I didn't think they could package this into the engine design but the N63 is already using A2W! This will definitely take care of heat soak, at least in the stock configuration. Check out the dual cores: YouTube - BMW 4.4 twin turbo direct engine V8 on a stand...walkaround
I LOVE my M6 SMG2 with all of its idiosyncrasies. I love the push of the V10 being always available without turbolag. I LOVE the slam of the SMG when it shifts at full howl. I don't like adding gas so much but what the hell.
I had decided that I wanted a DCT, just as I wanted the SMG. (I had a 2001 M3 for 9 mos, then traded when SMG came out) Now, however, I am in love with the old girl and won't give her up easily. In 2 mos I will have had her 5 yrs and only have 45k mi on her, most of our traveling is in my wife's Genesis on big highways -- she drives so she won't have to ride with me. I have no reason to change.
The big advantage of a blown car is the ease of making it go a LOT faster cheap. However I will stay with what I got and continue to love her.
At 0.27 of the trailer, the redline seems to be somewhere around 7100-7200 RPM. Still higher than the S62- people can only whinge so much about the low RPM's now.
M5 is an exceptional race car in 4 doors
It has 7 souls , 5 personality
The most interesting thing about driving this car is the way it shift gears , unfortunately this new f10 m5 has lost this "shifting" personality it is not SMG , it not F1 gear .
Am very sorry to tell m5 fans , this new version of m5 is not like what you think ,
Yes it has the power , tons of power ,,,, but it does not has the great shifting feeling
I mean it lost the m5 imprint .
Bottom line double clutch is boring .!
M5 is an exceptional race car in 4 doors
It has 7 souls , 5 personality
The most interesting thing about driving this car is the way it shift gears , unfortunately this new f10 m5 has lost this "shifting" personality it is not SMG , it not F1 gear .
Am very sorry to tell m5 fans , this new version of m5 is not like what you think ,
Yes it has the power , tons of power ,,,, but it does not has the great shifting feeling
I mean it lost the m5 imprint .
Bottom line double clutch is boring .!
The big issue that most people miss with the SMG is this: It allows you to shift without lifting off the gas. This creates a power shift that most people with pure manuals don't typically do.
When I drove my E39, I would lift off the gas when shifting. When I drove my E60 if I would lightly lift of the gas when shifting. It felt the same. The rough shifting didn't bother me because if I wanted it to go away I could. But I didn't, I like the agressive shifts :grinyes:.
When I kept my foot to the floor and clicked a gear in the E60, it was like a super power shift in the E39 under full throttle.
I have no solution for the jerk going back into first as you stop agressively at a stop sign. It didn't bother me and I have the same thing in my 2010 E63. I have become used to it.
I had an E39 M5 for almost 4 years. It was a fantastic car that to this day I miss, and had the car not been totalled by the guy I sold it to, I'd even be attempting to buy it back.... When I sold it, I thought I would never own an M5 or M6 with an SMG gearbox, because I was totally sold on "I don't like automatics".
However ... I caved in and bought an M6 last summer. I drive it in "manual" mode, on P500 Sport, S6 gearbox setting. With the lightest up-lift off the throttle between gear changes, I can drive it more smoothly than I ever could the E39. It certainly takes a bit of practice, but the SMG is not the total nightmare that many people make it out to be. I find it perfectly fine at low speeds, and it is a dream at high speeds. Now the "automatic gear change mode" is just stupid and doesn't work properly - it jerks and clunks and leaves you for dead accelerating away from junctions, and so on... the answer is just not to use it... the manual mode is fine.
Hence ... I'd sooner have the double clutch DCT because then the "automatic gear change mode" will work properly, (and when I get an F10 M5 in a few years time, I will do), but there is no way I'd go back to a regular manual gearbox with a clutch anymore... the split second gearchanges at high speed would just not be possible.
I had an E39 M5 for almost 4 years. It was a fantastic car that to this day I miss, and had the car not been totalled by the guy I sold it to, I'd even be attempting to buy it back.... When I sold it, I thought I would never own an M5 or M6 with an SMG gearbox, because I was totally sold on "I don't like automatics".
However ... I caved in and bought an M6 last summer. I drive it in "manual" mode, on P500 Sport, S6 gearbox setting. With the lightest up-lift off the throttle between gear changes, I can drive it more smoothly than I ever could the E39. It certainly takes a bit of practice, but the SMG is not the total nightmare that many people make it out to be. I find it perfectly fine at low speeds, and it is a dream at high speeds. Now the "automatic gear change mode" is just stupid and doesn't work properly - it jerks and clunks and leaves you for dead accelerating away from junctions, and so on... the answer is just not to use it... the manual mode is fine.
Hence ... I'd sooner have the double clutch DCT because then the "automatic gear change mode" will work properly, (and when I get an F10 M5 in a few years time, I will do), but there is no way I'd go back to a regular manual gearbox with a clutch anymore... the split second gearchanges at high speed would just not be possible.
The SMG is jerky if you only drive it around the block on a test drive and dont learn its characterstics for sure unless the car has throttle/clutch issues although my buddy drives an Acura and after 10 years he still doesnt know how to properly modulate his clutch and throttle so driving in his car is jerky as hell.
I find the SMG very smooth in my M5 but it took awhile to learn to drive smooth using SMG and subtle modulation of the throttle. Its not rocket science but if one doesnt have extended time using SMG, you will come away with a poor impression. I too will go F10 M5 eventually and look forward to DCT but in the meantime, Im loving my beast with SMG and while not perfect still gives a great overall driving experience. Im not saying that anyone who has SMG now and still has jerky starts doesnt know what they are doing but in my particular case, its totally smooth and fine around town.
Forgot in my last post, when people would drive my E60 they would always push the foot to the floor to feel the accelleration and then click off a gear. They would be surprised at how hard the shift was going into second and third. I would always tell them, what do you expect? You shifted gears under a 500hp load.
At 3:45 in the video. Chris Harris says the enginneers when asked about the horsepower ask how much horsepower does the X6M have and then state do you think it would have less? That shoots down the magazine articles stating the less hp number.
The slam of the SMG3 is a wonderful feeling, available only if you want it to happen.
Next week I will have lived with my M6 SMG for 5 years. Had a M3 SMG for 4 years before that.
I LOVE SMG. While my 6sp M3 had a fantastic box, the SMG is simply a huge step forward.
I have no plans to get the new M6. I LOVE the feeling that V10 gives me, especially when it slams under a full power shift. I fear that the TTV8 and dual clutch tranny will make it less of a beast, and I love the beast.
I fear the sales of this new M5 here in the UK will be very "Minimal", I have shelved the idea for now as have many of my friends, the prices of fuel here are going up Weekly h:
All ready £6.50 per gallon, now thats just silly money IMO.
I love my cars but................................................................ there is a limit.
i know if i was going to buy a high performance ///m car, i would get the m3 and not the new m5..... too big for uk roads to have fun in.....
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