The BMW M5 Turns 35

Picture a stylish, crisply cut Savile Row suit; a sober black with a delicate charcoal pinstripe. But within it resides not an accountant or a lawyer, but a snarling bear with glistening rows of knife-sharp teeth, its rippling muscles barely contained by the genteel fabric. That’s basically what the original BMW M5 was.

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Dan Bevis

Unleashed upon the crowded executive/midsize market in 1984, it took many a boy racer by surprise at the lights, looking for all the world like the motorway-munching wheels of a travelling salesman (albeit one who was doing rather well for himself). Beneath that stylish suit hid the chassis from the M535i and the engine from the revered M1; it had 282bhp, which was a lot for the mid-eighties. Hell, it’s a lot now, and it was more than enough to show a contemporary Porsche 911 a clean pair of heels.

Ever since that original foray into the entertaining world of stealth ballistics, the M5 has consistently remained a paragon of neatly tailored brutality. The bizarre but alluring formula proved sufficiently popular to ensure that the model has remained in production for an impressive thirty-five years so far – it turns out that buyers are quite into the idea of ludicrously fast luxury saloons. So let’s take a look at how this motoring icon evolved over its six distinct generations…

E28 (1984-88)

BMW, BMW 5 Series, BMW M5, E28, E34, E39, E60, F10, F90, E28 M5

The forefather of the needlessly-fast-executive sector (there’s probably a better name for it, but that works), the E28 M5 was the fastest production saloon in the world when it broke cover at the Amsterdam Motor Show. You can imagine the confusion on people’s faces as they combed through the press kit and tried to absorb the unlikely-sounding specs: the E28 had been around since 1981, and the muscular 535i variant was generally considered to be an impressively capable thing. But for some unfathomable reason, BMW had gone mad and shoehorned in the M88 engine from the sylph-like (and ultimately ill-fated) M1 supercar. OK, the motor was modified a bit, but not much – all they did was swap in a different fuel injection system and muck about with the compression ratio, but it still made 282bhp. That’s a big number, and to help deploy it the M5 received beefy Bilstein suspension and an LSD. But best of all, bystanders would only know about it if they understood what the little M5 badges represented; there were no flashy spoilers or stripes here, it just looked like a 5-Series. There were very few clues that this was a hand-built special capable of 0-60mph in six seconds and a top whack of 151mph. For obvious reasons, the E28 M5 has become an icon. The archetypal supersaloon.

E34 (1988-95)

BMW, BMW 5 Series, BMW M5, E28, E34, E39, E60, F10, F90, E34 M5

Where the E28 was perfect for the 1980s, the E34 M5 was bang-on for the nineties. It continued the formula of hiding a mighty engine in a package that was stealthy and unassuming – unless, of course, you knew which clues to look out for. The fat ‘throwing star’ wheels were a bit of a giveaway, but only if you knew what they represented. You see, the E34 was a really special M5; hiding under the bonnet was the S38 engine – a 3.5-litre straight-six that evolved from the old M88, with a forged crank and individual throttle bodies. Early cars offered a meaty 311bhp, but the later (1992-95) ones had a revised 3.8-litre engine with 335bhp. Like its predecessor, the E34 M5 was hand-built by artisans in crisp white overcoats. And what was most exciting was that BMW decided to market an M5 Touring variant as well – so you could get your Ikea shopping home really quickly, or scare the hell out of your labrador.

E39 (1998-2003)

BMW, BMW 5 Series, BMW M5, E28, E34, E39, E60, F10, F90, E39 M5

Fans of chronology and continuity will have spotted a bit of a gap between the demise of the E34 M5 and the introduction of its E39 M5 successor. We can only assume that BMW needed a little time to steel themselves for a few brickbats, as this generation of the revered nameplate was set to shake things up a bit: the E39 was the first M5 to use a V8 engine, which irritated many of the M-car purists who were so enamoured with the heritage of the straight-six format – although presumably the 394bhp on offer did much to mollify them. It also wasn’t hand-built any more, but was instead constructed on the same Dingolfing production line as the regular 5er… but it did have fancy aluminium suspension components and a multi-link rear, and instead of using the rack-and-pinion steering of other V8 E39s, the M5 used the recirculating-ball setup of the old E34 because it was quicker. A facelift in 2000 brought in the now-ubiquitous angel-eye headlights, and this model’s place in the pantheon of greats was assured.

E60/E61 (2005-10)

BMW, BMW 5 Series, BMW M5, E28, E34, E39, E60, F10, F90, E60 M5

Holy cow, what an unchained lunatic the E60 M5 was! It had a V10 engine, and you can count the number of production cars rocking V10s on your fingers. Let’s see, there’s the Dodge Viper, Porsche Carrera GT, Bristol Fighter, Lamborghini Gallardo, Lexus LFA, Audi R8… it’s a pretty good list. It was a hell of a motor too, derived from the BMW Sauber Formula One program (well, sort of). This was the world’s first saloon car to run a V10, and fans of swiftly despatching garden waste were overjoyed by the return of the M5 Touring (E61) format too. The car had a nice round 500bhp, a 0-62mph time just a sniff above four seconds, and could lap the Nürburgring faster than a Honda NSX or a Ferrari 355. Oh, and it had launch control. That’s become pretty common these days, but back then it was a big deal.

F10 (2011-16)

BMW, BMW 5 Series, BMW M5, E28, E34, E39, E60, F10, F90, F10 M5

When you consider the F10 alongside the E28, it’s markedly less subtle. But that’s not really a fair comparison, as the game’s moved on a bit; sure, the F10 looks overtly menacing, but so does pretty much every other BMW – in an era when everything looks faux-racy and even base-model Korean hatchbacks have pretend rear diffusers, the F10 M5 is still soberly styled in relative terms. Oh, and it’s an absolute brute under the skin too. Big saloons with supercar power figures has always been the M5 MO, but it still takes a bit of mental recalibration to come to terms with the fact that this car’s twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8 produces 553bhp. That’s just silly. And despite weighing two tonnes (because it really is opulently equipped inside), it’ll happily scamper to 62mph in 4.4s and go on to an eye-watering 190mph. Does anyone need to get to a business meeting or sales conference that quickly? Evidently they must do. And if that still wasn’t enough for you, the Competition Package lowered the suspension and cranked up the power to 591bhp. Strewth.

F90 (2017-present)

BMW, BMW 5 Series, BMW M5, E28, E34, E39, E60, F10, F90, F90 M5

…and so we come to the current M5. Onlookers who were astounded by the E28 back in the 1980s couldn’t have even conceived of such a brute as the F90, it’s an unimaginable powerhouse. In a first for the series, this M5 is all-wheel drive, which is frankly a necessity given that it has the same 591bhp as the outgoing Competition model, but with markedly more torque and about 150kg less to cart around. It’s an absolute animal. As you’d imagine in a world gone mad, the F90’s career has been tinged with the surreal; officially launched at Gamescom (yep, that’s a videogame conference), it holds the Guinness World Record for ‘longest continuous drift’, and its 0-62mph time is down to 3.4 seconds. That’s the same as a Pagani Zonda. It’s safe to say that the idea of shoving supercar power into sensible saloons has worked out pretty well for the M5 over the years. And to celebrate this fact, in July of this year BMW will release a 35-year anniversary edition of the M5: it will have 617bhp, satin-effect paint and assorted gold trim accents… perhaps rather a distance removed from the ethos of the original M5, and yet at the same time totally appropriate. Contemporary supercar power, served up in a luxury saloon. It’s just mad enough to work.

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