A TRI-GENERATIONAL BMW M5 DRAG RACE FEATURING THE F10, F90 AND THE HEAVYWEIGHT G90 - WHO'S THE BOSS?
The BMW M5 has been the unofficial benchmark for high-performance sedans since its debut in 1985. Born from the E28 5 Series, BMW’s M division took the sensible executive sedan and stuffed it with the 3.5L inline-six from the legendary M1, creating the world’s first true super sedan. It was a wolf in business-casual clothing - sophisticated but packing a serious punch. Since then, the M5 has gone through six generations (E28, E34, E39, E60, F10, and F90), each raising the bar in power, technology, and outright lunacy. Now, the latest G90 M5 is that debuted in 2024, brings hybrid power to the mix for the first time. Hybrid power usually comes with massive torque, and that was needed because the car is known to be a bit of a heavyweight. That doesn’t seem to affect the car’s performance though. Every iteration has its quirks and legends. The E34 M5 was hand-assembled, making each car slightly unique. The E39 M5, with its naturally aspirated V8, is still considered one of the greatest driver’s cars of all time. The E60 M5, with its screaming 5.0-litre V10, was basically an F1 engine in a family sedan - right up until the rod bearings reminded owners that high-revving V10s demand serious upkeep. The F90 M5 introduced all-wheel drive but cleverly allowed rear-wheel antics at the push of a button. Across all generations, the M5 has always been the ultimate blend of luxury and lunacy, proving that you really can have your cake and powerslide it too. If you had to make us choose one of the German luxobarges, the top choice would have to be the E39 M5 in Silverstone Metallic. It’s the one that I have the coolest memories of even though the owner eventually turned out to be a massive tonsil. One day a motoring journo friend brought an E92 M3 to play with and we put it up against the E39 because it made sense with both having normally aspirated V8 powerplants.
The older generation V8 made the then-new M3 look like a 318i. Not once, not twice, but a bunch of times over a few robot races. It was such a hiding that when the video was uploaded to the interwebz, it wasn’t even an hour later that the big chaps at BMW called and threatened legal action if it wasn’t taken down. According to them, some orders for the M3 were cancelled because it couldn’t beat the older M5. True or not, we’ll never know. On to the point of all of this, it’s all about a BMW M5 heads-up race, and sadly it doesn’t feature our favourites, this match-up includes the latest G90 M5 and it goes up against the two previous generations - the F90 and the F10. Starting with the new G90 is a beast of a thing powered by a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 coupled to an electric motor that makes it stupidly powerful and gives it an all-wheel drive system of note with an 8-speed auto transmission. Total power on tap is a whopping 535 kW with a massive torque output of 1,000 Nm. As mentioned, she’s a hefty one, tipping the scales at 2,435 kg! The F90 M5 in this match-up is the Competiution-spec car, which means it’s all-wheel drive with an 8-speed auto transmission and the power comes from a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 with 460 kW and 750 Nm of torque. With no battery things in play, it’s a fair bit lighter at 1,895 kg. Then there’s the F10 M5 which is unbelievably already 14 years old. This sports a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 and it’s mated to a 7-speed auto transmission which sends the 423 kW and 680 Nm to the rear wheels only. It’s the lightest in the match with a weight of 1,870 kg, likely due to no extra bits for an all-wheel drive system. We think it will be the G90 as the fastest followed by the F10 and then the F90. You?
Take a look at the YouTube video that shows off the last three generations of the range-topping saloon from the BMW stable - the M5. The most surprising thing about this match-up is that the F10 M5 is already over 10 years old. How?: New BMW M5 Generations DRAG RACE | carwow
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