Ever since BMW revealed the new G30-generation 5 Series late last year, enthusiasts have been eagerly anticipating one thing, and one thing only: the arrival of the new M5.
The Bavarian automaker was only too happy to oblige by releasing initial details less than two months ago. But that’s only whet our appetite. We want more. And more is what we have right here.
These two videos show M5 prototypes (at least two of them), still camouflaged, undergoing pre-production shakedown testing around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. And they do appear to be hustling, judging from the amount of track width they’re using, and the sound of their tires squealing… but perhaps most importantly, the sound their engines are emitting for our aural pleasure.
As a quick refresher, the forthcoming M5 is set to use a further-massaged version of BMW‘s 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 kicking out nearly 600 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. It’ll come with all-wheel drive, but drivers will be able to switch it to rear-drive only on demand.
That much we’ve already known for a while now, but 20 seconds into the second video below provides our first glimpse inside the cockpit from which all that power will be controlled. It looks mostly like the interior of the standard 5 Series on which it’s based, of course, but with a few key enhancements. For one thing, as the fanboys on Bimmerpost point out, the shifter looks like the one from the 8 Series concept, there’s a push-button for the ignition, various drive-mode buttons, and some carbon-fiber trim thrown in for good measure. Remove in your mind’s eye the Racelogic data-logger equipment and all those loose wires and this should be pretty close to what i’ll look like when BMW releases the full thing, taking its new mid-size sedan even further than the existing M550i.
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