2006 M5 vs E55 AMG

Its shouldn't have been a surprise. After all, that was what the last M5 led us all to expect. Sure, the old V-8 M5 handled okay, rode with aplomb, braked sternly, and was built like a tank, but it was, at heart, an engine car. The voice and power of its V-8 were what defined it. And if a 400-horsepower V-8 defined the old M5, then the new one, blessed with two more cylinders and another 100 well-bred ponies, was always going to be an engine car, too, yes?

Well, no, actually. The new M5's engine is, we're happy to report, the spectacular piece its specs would suggest. The sequential M gearbox aids and abets it by shifting cogs as promptly as any of its type. But the new M5 isn't just a powertrain car. It's a chassis car. The first full-effort curve--the moment when you load up the steering and feel the whole machine carve through the bend like a surgeon's knife, perfectly in tune with your will--that's the defining M5 moment


BMW's net result is an engine that displaces 5.0 liters like the old M5's, weighs the same despite two more cylinders, and revs higher to give another 100 horsepower. BMW contends that high revs allow a lower final drive, and so the possibility of lighter drivetrain components. It has VANOS timing variators on all four camshafts, a 12.0:1 compression ratio, and an oil system that, in moments of high lateral g, switches on special extractor pumps to prevent oil from collecting in the outside cylinder head. The chassis is in principle like a regular 5's, but with reinforcement, tweaked geometry, and a firmer setup. EDC adaptive dampers (with three programs) are included

Few sedans eat road like an M5, and the yowling 10-cylinder snarl as you sear toward max revs is an experience that etches itself deep in your memory

However you pride yourself on your manual shifts, this box can do it swifter. The blips on a downshift, especially, are perfection. Any of us can shift fast in a Miata, but the M5's electromechanical gubbins is shifting the equivalent of of a Corvette box's ironworks in milliseconds. It also does it exactly when you command. As soon as you've touched the paddle, you've had the change. This is the best behaved SMG trans extant, short of Audi's twin-clutch DSG box.

The E55's supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 belongs on any list of all-time great engines: mountainously torquey, licking your ears like a distant big-block super-stocker.

Building radical speed, then, is a snap. The M5 feels as fast as its amazing numbers--0-to-62 mph in a claimed 4.7 seconds is one thing, but BMW also says that, if it weren't for the social-responsibility speed limiter at 155 mph, this thing would go 205. It also has a launch-control function that allows you to play John Force with a German accent: Once selected, you hold the shifter forward with your foot flat on the floor. This summons up launch revs. Now, release the shifter and keep your foot down; the system handles all traction management and shifting automatically, and the shifts are rifle-bolt quick and near violent in nature.

ALL INFORMATION OBTAIN VIA www.motortrend.com

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