What is it?

The BMW M5. The fast saloon car after which the whole genre is named. Its internal code is F10M – the first time an M car has been given a specific internal name.

Technical highlights

Twin turbochargers, with unspecific modifications to both intake and exhaust systems. Official response to the question of power output is: 'Do you really think we would give it less than an X6M?'. An X6M has 547bhp. There's a seven-speed DCT dual clutch transmission with three different shift speeds and a fully automatic mode. Saloon only for now.

What’s it like to drive?

Is turbocharging a highlight? When it makes a car this flexible and plain accelerative, it has to be. Yes, the near-insanity of the old V10 makes way for slightly reduced throttle response, but it’s marginal. On a Swedish lake, you can still make tiny adjustments to sustain that all-important 1km drift. Does it feel turbocharged? A little bit. Does it make enough induction noise? No. But this isn’t the finished car, the BMW M-gurus insist that the final product will be different in this respect.

YouTube - M5YT

I only drove the car on snow, ice and the occasional patch of asphalt. It felt like an M-car in the correct sense: purposeful, but not too aggressive. The steering, chassis and powertrain each have three modes: comfort, sport and sport-plus, giving a myriad of options. The MDM (M Driving Mode) brings a higher threshold DSC intervention that requires steering correction from the driver, or you spin, It works brilliantly. Switch it all off and you have a circa 560bhp, rear-wheel-drive saloon with an LSD. If you can’t enjoy that, you’re a wally.

I can’t tell you much about ride comfort and steering yet, except that with the suspension set to comfort the car is compliant but never soft. The steering is faster than in a regular BMW 5-series.