Un-Sacrilegious Doings

What we like:

Sweet engine with an excellent torque band

Styling

wickedly quick gear-changes

absolute flexibility in adjusting your drive modes

and still with executive plushness

What we dislike:

I still want more noise

Under the hood, the M5’s thumping V8 punches out more power and torque. 600bhp, a 25bhp increase from between 5,600-6,700rpm and 750Nm, 70Nm more than the previous car, which begins at a low 1,800rpm, and the M5 easily delivers this at full whack until 5,600rpm. Driven utilising the shift pedals, the expansive 4.4 litre V8 delivers “take off from any gear” drivability. If you are hoping for a loud-banging engine roar, you may be disappointed. The V8 instead lets off a reassuring rumble, and you are able to hold quite a decent conversation in the car even when pushed hard.

The M5’s multifunction steering wheel is equipped with two red programmable drive mode memory buttons. Customisation of drive modes to make the car really your own is also done with easy to access buttons beside the gearshift lever.

Its 8-speed automatic with Drivelogic is truly an interesting touch, allowing you to work with the shift programming, by dialing up how quick and aggressive the gear changes should be.

Delivering a century sprint of just 3.4 seconds (the Mercedes AMG E 63 does this in 3.5 seconds, and the slightly more powerful E 63 S in the same time), there is so much torque even from takeoff, and the M5 feels planted, without the rear end bogging down.

The M5 lets you to drive, “Surgically Precise” or “Let it Slide… You Decide” with allowing you to punch the car around with its 4wd system in-place; with some safety nets removed, still with the 4wd switched on, or as a raw rear-driven car with no driver aids to save you.

With that said, the drive is so heavily rear-biased, with the front wheels only doing the work to ensure proper traction between the wheels and the road. As expected, steering feel is excellent and well-weighted. Around the bends, the M5 delivers its drive almost like a pure rear-driven car.

The earlier-mentioned memory switches are one of the best things since sliced bread. One moment, you can be headed down a straight in the fullest of comfort, and you can easily call up your pre-programmed drive mode in a flash, simply because you spot a tight corner you would want to take a little quicker (or very quickly).

The M5 wears many hats. It has to satisfy the requirement of being a very good executive sedan, and a very good one it is. As a car you can simply drive onto a track without any modifications, and have it deliver sports car quality performance, it truly hits the spot.

While the M5 delivers brutal performance, overall, it does not come across as vulgar and wild. In-fact it feels mature… mature with a large stick and it knows how to use it.

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