E60 BMW M5: Shut up and drive

Photo by Shooting Tyre on Unsplash

No this is not an article about the 2007 single by a Barbadian Pop and R&B superstar. What I would like to talk about is people having opinions on things they have never tried before. I think we have all seen this and to be completely honest, have all done it ourselves. Totally writing something off before trying it, just because of the way it looks, the general consensus or for the sake of being edgy.

A similar fate occurred for the E60 BMW M5, with the masses writing it off before driving it.

Had new technology eradicated raw authenticity?

The E60’s predecessor, the E39, was widely regarded as one of the best M cars ever made, to this day, many believe that it is the best M car to roll out of Bavaria. So the E60’s arrival and dramatic change in what an M5 is, definitely caused an upset.

Technological advancements were coming in thick and fast in the 2000’s, and the E60 M5 was at the forefront of this.

The raw, authentic, mechanical nature of the E39 was ripped away in place of a computer scientist’s dream.

The old 6-speed manual had been replaced by a 7-speed SMG automated manual, with 7 separate gearbox settings, the classic dashboard was now operated by the early iDrive systems, littered with different layers of options, driver settings and useless information.

The E60 featured adaptive dampers, an ‘M’ mode which increased the horsepower from 400 to over 500, and included variable throttle responses.

The whole ‘get in it and go’ attitude to cars, especially performance cars, seemed to be gone, visions of sitting it the drivers seat of your new M5 now had scenes of 20 minute sessions setting up the correct configurations for the optimal driving experience.

But if I remember correctly, you do not buy a BMW M5 for its driver settings, or its adjustable control, or how its infotainment system is controlled. You buy it to drive it.

Press M and away you go

People have a habit of focusing on the negatives, like scrolling through hundreds of positive reviews for a hotel, just to find one negative response where it is clear to see that the issue is with the reviewers incompetence and not the hotel.

The E60 M5 was equipped with a 5.0 V10 engine, and when in M mode, it delivered 507 brake horsepower.

The first and only V10 to feature in an M5 and my word is it special. The engineers at BMW managed to take your everyday 5-series and turn in into a pantomime theatre every time you press ‘start’.

The added weight didn’t stunt performance, it was almost an illusion, you could almost forget that you are driving a car built for sitting in cruise control in the outside lane of the motorway, and believe you are driving a fully fledged supercar.

And as soon as you find yourself on a twisting back round, that moaning and complaining about the driver aids and the gearbox settings is drowned out and forgotten when the screaming of that high-revving V10 comes out and performs.

Its dividing looks were now irrelevant as well, how could you care about the questionable back end of your M5, as you are literally driving a V10, 507 brake horsepower BMW M5.

You can have 20 gripes about this car, that is fine. But that 1 positive is astronomically bigger than any complaint you could ever have about the M5.

Bet against BMW at your own will

People truly believed BMW had gone mad with this new model, that they had lost their way with the E60 M5, that decades of hard work had been thrown away as a result of a few buttons on the dashboard.

BMW knew what they were doing all along, they had proved the doubters wrong before this M5, they did it again with the E60, and they will continue to do it in the future.

And guess what, those questionable looks have grown on those who hated it initially, and those drivers aids now seem basic and low-level compared to the interruptions and settings we deal with today with modern cars.

Changing something that is already brilliant is never easy. BMW must’ve known the jump from the E39 to the E60 would cause a stir, and they accepted that, and as always, they were right to follow their intuition.

This car really reinforces that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Or a car from its gearbox settings, the key is to make your own mind up about the E60 M5 after experiencing one.

It is therefore best to block out the outside noise and focus on the important things. And then again, blocking out outside noise in a E60 M5 sounds rather enjoyable.