It’s the yellow headlights that get you. Well, they’re getting me, and could have been made specifically for that purpose. The new BMW M5 CS receives the ultra-bright “Laser Light” LED units from the Munich brand (which throw high beams over 650 m and can set trees and wild animals on fire) if you only have low beam or “car” lights up , the small LED daytime lanes light up in a rich yellow.
This isn’t, as you might think, a tribute to the 1960s Citroens. In fact, it is due to BMW’s tradition in GT racing – the GTE rules of Le Mans stipulated that the road vehicles in the great 24-hour race had yellow headlights so that racing machines could be seen driving by at night. Equipping the most powerful M5 of all time with yellow lights is therefore an affectation, but a wonderfully emotional one. Well, it really captivated me anyway.
The M5 CS is the fin de siècle (French for “the back of the bike”…) V8 petrol engine M5. If the rumor mill is to be believed, this twin-turbo monster with 4.4 liters and eight potentiometers will make fully electric drive in the next M5, which is due around 2024.
Well there may be a V8 plug-in hybrid version too, but the way the legislation goes, I wouldn’t bet on it. Should the electric M5 come into being, it will get at least 1,000 hp from its washing machine motors, which would make it by far the most powerful M-car of all time.
This car has serious potency – 0-100 km / h in 3.0 seconds and a top speed of 305 km / h if you tick the right boxes and sign a few waivers
In the meantime, this M5 CS has to make do with just 635 hp – making it the most powerful M car of all time.
To put this in perspective, the original McLaren F1 – the greatest supercar of all time and the fastest production car in the world for 20 years – uses a 6.1-liter BMW S70 / 2 V12 engine specially built for the car. It had 627 hp. . . Of course, the F1 weighed a little over a ton, and this M5 CS weighs a stretchy waistband of 1,900 kg. This is ensured by four doors, four seats, a lot of leather, an eight-speed automatic transmission and a powerful, switchable all-wheel drive.
Mind you, BMW has also lost 70 kg compared to the standard 625 hp BMW M5 Competition model. That’s partly due to elements like a carbon fiber hood (with some extra-snorty vents in it) and a lighter back seat that only seats two people. Well, that’s one less bag you’ll need. . .
There are some delicious styling details. There are gold 20-inch alloy wheels and a matt gold paint finish for the radiator trim to match the yellow headlights. Sounds gaudy, but in fact, when it is balanced out by the Frozen Deep Green metallic paint, it actually looks gun-compatible.
Inside are high-back bucket seats that have been lifted from the M3 and M4 (with a slightly sticky outline of the Nürburgring circuit sewn into the headrests), but other than those and the modified back seat, the interior is similar to getting in the normal M5, which oozes quality, is a little overstyled and is very comfortable. Even in the form-fitting bucket seats, this is a car with the kind of sophistication and comfort that would make a quick trip to Milan for milk pretty easy.
The interior is bursting with quality, a little over-styled and very comfortable.
Maybe a little too sophisticated? When you splash out of the pit lane on the Mondello Park racetrack, there is little of the bassy sound drama you get from a competing Mercedes-AMG product or a Maserati Trofeo, not even the deliciously crisp six-cylinder sound of the original 1980s M5 . Well, if the M5 CS can’t hit the ears quite as effectively, then it certainly has one or the other trick up its gold-trimmed sleeves. . .
This 635 hp, supported by 750 Nm of torque, bang firmly back into the bucket seats with the slightest movement of an ankle. This car has serious potency – 0-100 km / h in 3.0 seconds and a top speed of 305 km / h if you tick the right boxes and sign a few waivers. That’s 0.3 seconds faster than the M5 Competition, but did 10 hp more really make that much of a difference?
No it doesn’t. But the suspension and steering mods have.
The suspension has been developed almost entirely around the Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires, which wrap around these gold rims like a watch strap.
It might sound weird to describe a 1,900kg luxury hyper limousine as being built for the racetrack, but that smile is replaced by a giggle of the best once you hit the first tight hairpin in Mondello.
With the huge ceramic-carbon brakes losing speed, turn the steering wheel – helpful wrapped in Alcantara suede to wick away nervous sweat. What you don’t get is a lot of feeling and feedback – a Porsche Panamera has a much more talkative wheel – but you get a light, delicate weight and an immediate turn-in. Somewhere between the brakes and the tip, the M5 has secretly lost around 900 kg and feels as light as a feather when turning.
Compared to the sledgehammer-like M8 Competition we drove last year, it feels like this sledgehammer was taken to a master blacksmith and made into a scalpel. It’s agile, pliable, and fun.
On the racetrack, these 635 hp, supported by 750 Nm torque, throw you firmly back into the bucket seats with an ankle movement
Even when all this torque, all this power comes up – which should really overwhelm the experience – the chassis of the M5 CS dances to the limits of control and takes you on a tongue-in-cheek tour of what driving should be like.
So the M5 CS is left out. Ballistic. Ballet. But also forked – in its personality, alternating seamlessly between racetrack frenzy and relax taxi. A slower lap with all the switches turned away from 11 shows that it’s as convenient and refined as you’d expect from a 5-series.
Given the lack of enthusiasm we were able to muster for the latest M4 Competition and its mighty nostrils, the M5 CS renews our marriage vows with BMW’s M department. While they completed the M4 and the M versions of its SUVs in one afternoon, hours, days, weeks, and even years were devoted to perfecting the CS.
Okay, so the badge is a misnomer – CS stands for coupe sport in BMW lore, and the M5 is definitely not a coupe – and the price is more than stupid. At € 241,415, it fights with Bentleys and even Aston Martins. Would you? Could you?
Well, I could, I guess, when the six numbers come up. The M5 CS is one of those all-too-rare cars that you wish you were 10 years old again and that there was room for a poster on your bedroom wall.
The M5 CS has some delicious styling details.
It doesn’t make financial sense, but that just makes it more attractive to me. It is not an investment vehicle for a bored millionaire trying to commit a murder by whipping it out in six months. It’s a real, real, polished, wonderful driver machine. With yellow headlights so they know you’re coming.
BMW M5 CS: The facts
- power 4.4-liter turbo V8 petrol engine with 635 hp and 750 Nm torque with eight-speed manual transmission and all-wheel drive.
- CO2 emissions (annual vehicle tax) 258 g / km (€ 2,350).
- L / 100km (MPG) 11.1 (25.4)
- 0-100km / h 3.0 seconds.
- price € 241,415 as tested; BMW 5 Series starts at 53,475 euros.
- judgment One of the best BMW M cars of all time. A future classic, and at this price it wants to be. . .
