Rode the beast today. Good & bad news.

[BMW M Power Mexico]

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BMW Mexico was demoing the new M5 today at the Hermanos Rodriguez track durong a session of a local track club.

I rode co-pilot for a few laps with the demo driver and two more passengers.

The good: Amazing interior quality, very nimble (for the weight), techno-stuff, great seats and POWER. It hits 265 kph at the end of the main straight. For reference, I can hit 240 kph in the E90 and maybe a couple kph more in the 1M. Brakes also seemed excellent but one cant really tell as a passenger.

The bad: limped consistently after two laps. This track, similar to the South African test that was posted before, is at 2,240 mts above sea level so altitude is indoubtedly a factor. But it is still disappointing. No other M car that I know of limps here. I can do lap after lap in the 1M. The M3s are obviously rock solid in this regard. I am sure this isn't ever a problem outside the track but his is an M car, it should be able to take a lot more. Having said that, the instructor was really pushing it to redline. It isn't really necessary with the low end torque that car has, maybe short shifting at 5 or 5.5K rpm would avoid limp mode, but still.