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      09-21-2011, 08:20 PM   #1
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Post BMW F10 M5 Review - Automobile: Probably Best Steering M5 Yet

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BMW F10 M5 Review - Automobile: Probably Best Steering M5 Yet
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Automobile, who brought us their very entertaining 1M coupe review, now comes in with their F10 M5 review.

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First thing's first: the M5 uses a hydraulic steering rack. No fancy active steering, and no electric assist. What does that mean? Well, driving down the cobblestone driveway of our Spanish hotel, I let out a big "it's alliiiiiiiiive!" Steering feel, even at 10 mph, is alive and well in the M5... Better yet, the steering is adjustable to three levels of weight: Comfort, which feels like a normal M product, Sport which is slightly heavier than, say, an M3, and is just plain perfect, and Sport Plus, which makes the steering wheel feel like it's attached to a bowl of split pea soup.

The steering is probably the best of any M5 yet (overall, the E60 M5 left us cold, and as much as we loved the E39, that M5's steering used a recirculating ball setup. It was good, but the F10 M5's rack and pinion system is more communicative.)
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The suspension, too, is adjustable in three settings. Comfort is stiff but comfortable, Sport is slightly stiffer, and Sport Plus should only be used by trained chiropractors. It's actually not that bad (on the standard nineteen-inch wheels) but it does come across as unnecessarily harsh. Hey, if you like that kind of thing, go for it. I'm fine with Comfort -- it does everything it needs to without beating you up. The third adjustment is throttle response, and there are also three modes. Pick which one you like.
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How's it drive? Well it goes like stink, that's for sure. It feels even faster than the factory's quoted 4.4-second 0-to-62-mph time, but that number is clearly very traction-limited. On Southern Spain's slippery roads, the M5 easily roasts its tires in first and second and third and sometimes fourth - and it sure feels like the engine computer doesn't even bother to allow full boost in first gear. It'd be pointless anyway. It's very, very fast.
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Thanks to the ingenius exhaust port routing from the regular S63 (for details see) the F10 M5 doesn't sound like a normal, burbly, cross-plane-crankshaft V-8. The exhaust note is similar to that of a flat-plane V-8, or a four-cylinder. That means no lope, but a lot of boom at very low (2000 and fewer) revs, and a staggering bark under load. It sounds incredible, especially at startup or at full throttle. Here's something you'll be shocked to learn: when I unplugged the factory stereo amplifier, the engine's note inside the car changed considerably. It was all but inaudible over two grand, becoming more audible but distant as the revs increased. Somebody call the "Ultimate Driving Machine" police: BMW is actually using the car stereo speakers to pipe in engine music? Hmm.
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The biggest disappointment with the M5 is turbo lag. Yeah, yeah, how typical that I'm complaining about a turbocharged M5. Actually, I'm not complaining about the fact that the M5 wears turbos: I'm complaining that the S63TU engine has so much more lag than the non-Valvetronic S63 did. And it seems that M's engineers aren't fully using their arsenal of tools (Valvetronic, Double VANOS, direct injection) to mitigate lag. Case in point, drive at highway speeds, and the transmission is in seventh gear. Floor the throttle and you get a fairly quick downshift into third: revs in the top half of the tach, all is well. The problem is that there's no boost, so you get a clutch engagement, followed by no power for a second, followed by massive thrust. Boost should have been built by the time the downshift was done.
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There's a bit of lost isolation in the rear of the M5 compared to the regular 5-series: the subframes are rigidly attached to the body, which means you hear the differential working, and the ride is a bit more gritty. Bad thing? Not to me. This is an M5, if you want super refinement you can buy a 550i. And the whole point of an M5 is skirting along the compromise of packing sports car moves into a luxury sedan body.

And in that sense, this M5 is a far better M5 than the last one (which was always a bit too high-strung and sterile for its own good.) It's got almost all of the refinement of the current 5-series, all of the tech features, gorgeous styling, and elegant interior. And then it's got razor-sharp handling and the best steering we've seen in a 5-series in a long time, if not ever. And then it'll rip that smile off your face with outrageous acceleration. And if you're in Germany, and you buy the driver's pack, you'll be able to test out the raised 190-mph limiter. 190! In a sedan.
Plenty more to read at Automobile's full review.

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