Ahead of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a quiet beach in Wales echoes with the sound of the new BMW M5′s twin turbo engines as precision driver Wolfgang Weber enjoys drifting around Pendine Sands to help us support the BMW London 2012 Performance Team athletes.
Archive for the 'BMW M5' Category
With its latest creation, the CLR 730 RS, it seems that Lumma Design is making a play for the title of Europe’s most garish tuner. However, this two-tone widebody BMW M5 is actually subtle compared to previous Lumma Design models, and we think the title still firmly remains with Mansory.
So what’s special about the CLR 730 RS? For starters, 730 horsepower. The 50% increase in chutzpah comes from a set of twin-superchargers courtesy of G-Power, and Lumma Design claims an impressive top speed of 228 mph. Additional performance upgrades come in the form of a sport suspension, six-piston front and four-piston rear brakes, and an upgraded exhaust system.
The candy cane interior of the CLR 730 RS is even more over-the-top than the outside, with a combination of carbon fiber, leather, and suede. It’s not really our style, but we would probably be more accepting of it in a more subtle color.
It seems to be raining apocryphal BMW M cars that have been sitting in cold storage. And in a way, it has! On Thursday, we saw the mind-boggling, hyper-cool E34 M5 Convertible that BMW stashed away for twenty long years. Today’s car isn’t nearly as crypto (meaning we’ve seen pictures of it before), but in a way it’s much, much cooler.
We posited that perhaps the E34 M5 is in fact the best M car of all. Well, here’s the truth — the E39 M5 is the one we want, hands down, 100%. We were just waxing poetical. E39 M5, every time over here, boss. Why? With that big fat 400 horsepower V8 and those conservative duds, the E39 is still the ultimate M sleeper. Er, that is, it would be if not for the E39 M5 Wagon.
Yes that’s right, an M Wagon. Many of you who bothered to click through the E34 M5 convertible gallery noticed the M5 Wagon (or “Touring” as BMW calls the 5-door in a lame attempt to mask its wagonness) just sitting there. We were going to say something, but, you know how it is — pics or it didn’t happen. Anyhoo, the story goes that BMW wanted to build the E39 M5 Wagon but some issue with the rear axle misbehaving led them to decide that the car just wouldn’t be up to M Division snuff. And the plug was pulled.
So there you have it. And now we come to the part in the story where we come fully clean and admit that the M Coupe is our actual favorite ever M car. Unless that M8 shows its face…
Amongst M Division cognoscenti there rages an eternal debate concerning what’s the best ever BMW M car. To the casual Bavarian-enthusiast the answer is quite simple: E39 M5. However, strong cases can be made for both the E30 M3 and the OG E28 M5, which featured the M1′s race-bred 3.5-liter straight-six. In fact, there’s a whole subculture of folks that feel a car’s not really a BMW (let alone an M) without an inline-six. With that said, the E34 M5 is a pretty compelling candidate for best ever M car, as is the M1. Oddly, no one ever advocates in favor of the E60 M5. Moving on…
Think about it now — the E34 M5 is the last of the totally hand built M cars. Sometimes one worker made an entire car, though usually the cars were built by specific teams. In fact, BMW test engineers could tell which person (or people) had built each individual car. That’s pretty nifty. Only thing is, all those doors. And that roof! Who needs it? Sadly, it was only with the introduction of the E63 M6 that the big M cars got back to just two doors and a drop top. Or was it?
Turns out that back in the late ’80s BMW built a convertible E34 M5 and they’ve kept it under lock and key for the past 20 years until showing it to a select group of journalists during a 25 years of M5 celebration. Based of the E34 chassis, the convertible version featured lengthened doors and was actually all set to go into production.
But then, just one week before its introduction at Geneva (they’d booked space for the car and everything), BMW pulled the plug and canceled the M5 convertible, fearing demand for non-M5 convertibles would cut into the highly profitable 3 Series convertible sales. Too bad, as this thing looks sweet. Also, if BMW pulls the long-rumored-though-(maybe)-never-built M8 out from some dark corner of the storage bin, well, we’ll be pretty upset. Yet thrilled at the same time.
