2000 BMW M5

This is not generally known, but it was Johnny Rocco who first articulated the philosophy behind BMW's new M5 sedan. You remember Rocco. He was the heavy in Key Largo, a '30s gang lord attempting a comeback after World War II. The good guy, played by Humphrey Bogart, wanted Rocco to say what it was he wanted, and after some verbal fencing, Rocco, played by a sneering Edward G. Robinson, summed it all up with one word. "More," he said. "Yeah, that's it more."

We figure Rocco as a Buick Roadmaster kind of guy, but even so he nailed it, because more is what you get with the new M5. More cylinders two. More power at 394 horsepower, it's in very rare company for a sedan. More grip. More electronic refinements. And, natch, you'll need more money to get one.

Just how much more money is anybody's guess right now, since the latest M5 probably won't appear in a U.S. showroom before October. Our guess: about $75,000. But we don't have to guess what the lucky few (some 1000 U.S. buyers per annum, according to BMW) will get for their money. Just a day and a half of brisk touring in southern Bavaria was enough to convince us that for a certain class of discerning, well-heeled driver you, perhaps? the new M5 is the most seductively sophisticated sports sedan to speed down the pike since . . . well, since the last M5 to come our way, back at the turn of this decade. We called that scorcher "the quickest and fastest regular production four-door automobile this magazine has ever tested" (C/D, July 1990). This one figures to be all of that. And more.

This is the fourth entry in the M5 series. Like its predecessors M5 eins, 1984-87; M5 zwei, 1988-92; M5 drei, 1992-95 (Europe only) its development took place in BMW's M shops, M standing for "motorsport." Unlike its predecessors, this M5 is propelled by an engine that lacks a racing heritage. Previous M5s relied for thrust on BMW's much-campaigned straight-six. That engine started out in 1978 in the mother of all Ms the M1 coupe with a horsepower rating of 266. Its output soared as high as 335 horsepower in Europe formidable output from a naturally aspirated 3.8-liter engine. Although the new engine, a V-8, doesn't quite measure up to the last of the sixes in horsepower per liter, it's formidable in the power-to-weight department at 9.6 pounds per, and the absence of a racing heritage doesn't seem to inhibit its urgency even slightly.

So, how urgent is urgent? BMW forecasts a 0-to-62-mph time of 5.3 seconds. Road conditions during our Bavarian blitz ranged from vaguely damp to way wet, and we weren't able to verify that claim with a stopwatch, but even so, that 0-to-62 number feels conservative. The last M5 we tested, back in 1992, with 310 horses on tap from its 3.5-liter six, stormed to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds. That one scaled in at 12.3 pounds to each horsepower. The new one BMW says it's precisely 16 pounds lighter than its 1992 ancestor, although roughly 40 pounds heavier than a 540i six-speed has a power-to-weight ratio of 9.6 pounds per horsepower. You figure it out. Our guess: less than five seconds. Corvette territory.

That's only part of it, of course. The other part is what happens between 60 mph and the top of the clock, which is electronically governed to 155 mph, a speed limitation adopted by the various automakers to appease the German Green Party's clamor for speed limits on the autobahns. There are a good many cars capable of this speed, and as you'd expect, the M5 doesn't take long to nudge up against the limiter, which asserts itself almost unobtrusively. But up to the point where the engine-management system begins dragging its electronic anchor, the thrust of the V-8 seems almost limitless. As with a number of Japanese superbikes, there's an electric-motor feel to the acceleration no peaks, no valleys, just a sense of endless upsurge. Keep upshifting long enough, and you'll hit escape velocity. Escape from what? Well, just about anything else with four wheels and four doors.

BMW engineers call the M5's V-8 a new engine, and they have a case. The architecture is based on the 4.4-liter DOHC 32-valve aluminum V-8 that helps make the 540i one of C/D's 10Best for '99 (see January issue), but the block is a specific casting with markedly different bore and stroke dimensions 94 by 89 millimeters, with a bore that is 2mm wider and a stroke 6.3mm longer. When BMW adds all this up, it amounts to a 5.0-liter V-8, although it is in fact 4941cc, which we round to 4.9 liters. Then again, with 394 hp at 6600 rpm and 369 lb-ft of torque at 3800 rpm, BMW can go ahead and call it whatever it wants. Our only question is whether BMW will be able to sustain these numbers on the premium petrol available from U.S. pumps. A compression ratio of 11.0:1 makes that iffy.

To achieve this prodigious output, the V-8 employs some exotic features. One is BMW's double-VANOS system, which allows variable valve timing on both the intake and exhaust cams. Another is a system of individual throttle butterflies for each cylinder, a key element in the new engine's excellent torque characteristics. And a third is a semidry sump oil system, involving three pumps and designed to ensure slurpy crankshaft bearings when lateral g loads start getting heavy.

That's significant because BMW forecasts lateral grip of up to 1.20 g from the M5's slightly stiffer suspension and meaty low-profile tires 245/40ZR-18 front, 275/35ZR-18 rear, Dunlop or Michelin, depending on what the assembly troops happen to be mounting that day. Production cars capable of posting skidpad numbers north of 1.00 g are rare in our collective experience. In fact, we have yet to test a factory sedan that's reached this magic threshold, let alone stepped beyond. Which makes BMW's expectations for the M5 that much more impressive. Dampish pavement in Deutschland made it easy occasionally almost too easy to reach the M5's limits of adhesion, so we'll have to wait for a formal test to verify BMW's forecast.

Another interesting element in the M5's substantial array of controls and convenience features is a little dashboard switch marked "Sport." Beyond its irony quotient think about it: switching to sport mode in a car wearing an M badge? this control alters the characteristics of the recirculating-ball steering system and also the throttle mapping. The steering change is novel, producing a discernible uptick in effort and feel, rare in itself, but the trick throttle is unique, yielding more aggressive response without changing the position of the foot pedal. BMW's drive-by-wire throttle system, first introduced in the 7-series, makes that possible.

Other elements of the M5 are consistent with this car's likely role in the world of wheels the Ultimate Executive Express. The M guys showed commendable restraint with the exterior elements a deeper front air dam, slightly wider trim around the twin grille nostrils, tidy rocker-sill extensions, subdued fender flares to cover the pewter-tinted aluminum alloy wheels, four stainless-steel exhaust pipes, and the merest hint of a spoiler on the rear decklid.

The same can be said for the suspension. Although the M5's spring and damping rates are slightly stiffer something that's partly attributable to reduced ride height (more than a half-inch in front, not quite a half-inch at the rear) ride quality is nevertheless on a par with other recent BMW offerings, which is to say supple.

Interior appointments, of course, are what you'd expect in a sporting sedan of such rare potential and price. The leather-clad seats offer an exceptional range of adjustability, as well as sufficient side bolstering to keep driver and passenger centered when lateral loading approaches BMW's 1.20-g target. Handsome wood trim flanks the navigation system's dashboard VDT as well as the shifter for the six-speed manual gearbox. And there's a conspicuous absence of the adornments we've seen inside previous M models. The sports sedan may never have been more elegantly or potently expressed.

Engine Specifications

Vehicle type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan

By Tony Swan