For a petrolhead, a solitary number ‘5' isn't just how many toes you have on each foot. It's Renault 5 Turbo. The letter ‘C' isn't third in the alphabet; it's Michael Schumacher tearing through a Group C field in a Sauber Mercedes. Z is Nissan, X is the last (so we are told) Mitsu Evo, S makes your blood flow faster, and R, well that's just the coolest letter in the universe. Anything with a single R in its moniker is automatically deemed to be frighteningly fast.
But there is one totally unassuming letter that runs the R pretty darn close.
‘M' for most people stands for McDonald's or divorced M&M's. For cooler people like us, who love cars, M can only be BMW Motorsport GmbH. M even has colour; blue, purple and red, as well as a smell; burning rubber. It has more than that too; prestige, racing heritage, expectations of excellence, innovation, engineering purity, and some heavy doses of driving exhilaration. And M just stepped into a whole new zone of awesomeness with the BMW Concept M5 headed for Auto Shanghai 2011 next week.
It's been more than 25 years since BMW first created the true luxury sports saloon segment with the E28 M5, and the wolf in a business suit is now preparing for a fifth generation with the F10.
Even though BMW has labelled this a concept, it's pretty much a production car in terms of its exterior styling, although we will only see a real showroom-ready model in Frankfurt this September.
But the aesthetics are typical M, with restrained, slightly ‘sleeper' looks uncovering the power beneath with only black rims and air-dammed front and rear bumpers. According to BMW the V8 is new, but we'd be wary using the word new as it's expected the unit's shared with the X5 M and X6 M super UVs.
Although Munich isn't giving anything away yet, we expect the 555bhp 4.4-litre V8 turbo to divulge even more power in the M5 halo car.
The old F1-derived V10 made 507bhp, so it's clear that with less capacity, lower weight and smaller dimensions, there are still improvements everywhere in terms of power, economy and efficiency; it's 25 per cent cleaner.
The only downside is, of course, force-feeding, making this the official end of normally aspirated M cars as even the next M3 will move in the turbocharged direction. The heady days of 8,000rpm power peaks may be over (the new turbo V8 peaks at around 6,000rpm), but BMW comforts its supporters with the delivery of new suspension technology and an active differential for this 5 Series.
Tuned on the Nordschleife, the suspension complements weight-optimised brakes and a diff that increases cornering traction by varying torque across the rear axle — and thankfully still the only powered axle.
So yes, times are changing, but hopefully Munich's change isn't the same as Obama's change. We expect the Germans to pull it off, and make the fifth M5 the greatest one yet.
