2006 BMW M5 New York

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The 2006 BMW M5 defines an entirely new paradigm. It’s not rare for a car to be fast, comfortable and handsome. But to achieve true greatness, a car needs to perform exceptionally well in all of those areas and still offer more. And on that score, the new BMW M5 delivers - huge.

Yes, the 500 horsepower V10 engine with its 8,000 rpm redline is impressive. And yes, the seven-speed Sequential Manual Gearbox breaks new ground. But the most notable thing about the 2006 BMW M5 is the way it seamlessly incorporates those ultra high performance attributes into a package that carries five people and their luggage in absolute comfort, supreme luxury and reassuring safety.

Additionally, the 2006 BMW M5 bristles with technological advancements. The M5’s operating dynamics can actually be custom tailored by its owner to deliver vastly differing performance attributes at will. You’d like a soft suspension to go along with mild throttle response and smooth shifts for your day-to-day driving? Simply pre-program the BMW M5 to operate that way. Do you prefer all out handling, lightning fast shifts and great honking performance from the engine? Lock in those variables, and at the press of a button, the M5 will instantly transform itself into a land-based guided missile. Looking for something in between those two extremes? The M5 will accommodate that desire as well. In fact, the M5’s performance is infinitely variable between those two extremes.

To encompass what BMW has achieved with this car, most other manufacturers have to build at least three distinct models. With the acquisition of a single 2006 BMW M5, you can actually get many different cars for the same money.

BMW M5s have technically been with us since 1980, when BMW introduced the M535i to North America. However, the first car to be labeled simply “M5” was introduced in Germany in 1984. That car crossed the Atlantic in 1988 with a 256-horsepower, inline six cylinder engine. Eighteen years later finds us in awe of an M5 that delivers 500 horsepower from a V10 engine redlined at 8,250 rpm. Acceleration to 60 happens in a scant 4.5 seconds from a dead stop.

A close relative of BMW’s Formula-1 racing engine, the M5’s V10 is outstandingly smooth in operation. The engine serves up a suitably hormone-stimulating yowl at high rpm, and yet is civil enough to leave your passengers blithely ignorant of the death-defying potential that lurks just on the other side of the M5’s dash.

Designed to wind, the S85 (BMW’s internal designation for the powerplant) makes its peak power at 7,750 rpm. The comparably “modest” 383 foot-pounds of torque are produced at 6,100 rpm. This provides the car with more than enough torque for extreme quickness off the line, but leaves it with enough headroom to wind delightfully as it goes about the business of converting petroleum into high velocity.

A technological masterpiece, the M5’s V10 boasts separate, electronically controlled throttles for each cylinder, an extremely high compression ratio of 12.0:1, knock-sensing sparkplugs to handle the high compression, and a G-sensitive lubrication system that always insures an adequate flow of oil to all moving parts, even during the exceptional cornering maneuvers the 2006 BMW M5 is capable of executing.

A central computer manages all of the engine’s electronic functions. The same device also communicates with the Sequential Manual Gearbox and incorporates the MDrive functions that allow the driver to select varying performance parameters to tailor the car specifically to the task at hand.

The M5’s new seven-speed Sequential Manual Gearbox is the first purpose-designed SMG employed by BMW. It is lighter and more compact than the unit it replaces, even though it has seven forward gears, compared to its predecessor’s six. The transmission offers 11 driver-selectable shift programs ranging from boulevard mild to racetrack wild. The new SMG incorporates automatic downshifts, over-rev protection, slip control, and a start-off assistant that prevents the car from rolling backward on a hill when starting from rest.

The 2006 BMW M5’s suspension system incorporates a special version of Electronic Damping Control that is driver adjustable; as well as Servotronic steering with two levels of power assist. The front track is narrower than the standard 5-series’, but because it wears a wider tire and wheel set, its footprint is actually larger. The EDC allows the driver to select either comfort, normal or sport suspension settings.

MDrive puts 279 combinations of control settings at the driver’s disposal. It gives you control over power and throttle response, transmission mapping, the suspension system and the stability control system. You can set all of these parameters to be as aggressive or as sedated as you please.

The brakes are the largest, most powerful ever fitted to a 5-series BMW and incorporate disc drying and a standby mode. In wet weather, the calipers will graze the rotors very lightly every so often to dry excess moisture. This enables your brakes to remain dry and maintain their effectiveness. The standby mode automatically poises the brake pads just above the surface of the rotors when you lift off of the throttle abruptly. The system equates a rapid lift with an imminent emergency stop, so the calipers pre-set the pads in anticipation.

With all of these electronic aids and variable parameters, one would expect the M5 to deliver an automaton driving experience. Nothing could be further from the truth. At speed, the car feels absolutely alive in your hands. The steering communicates readily, the tires and suspension speak very clearly to you about the road surface, and the brakes are powerful enough to defend against a Navy SEAL Team.

The SMG’s shifts do take some getting used to, as it isn’t as smooth as an automatic transmission. In fact in some of the more benign modes, shifts can take on an awkwardness, not unlike someone just learning to drive a manual transmission. However, in the more aggressive modes, shifts happen quickly and with more smoothness.

Overall, this is a perfectly balanced car that you can drive hard with total abandon, confident that it is your willing partner in controlled mayhem. Conversely, it also has a respectable side that absolutely defies the outrageous performance to surface unwarranted.

The finest leathers and the most sumptuous carpeting BMW could find upholster the interior. A full leather option enables you to swath practically every surface inside your M5 with the material. BMW’s highest performance audio system, incorporating Logic 7 surround sound and digital signal processing further enhance the M5’s cabin.

Adaptive Xenon headlamps that swivel in concert with the steering wheel, Park Distance Control, auto dimming mirrors and heated front seats are all on the list of standard features. Soft-close doors, first seen on the 7-series, mean you need only to pull the door up to the frame, at which point an electric motor takes over to close the door the rest of the way. The heated, multi-adjustable (naturally) front seats can be set to automatically inflate and deflate their side bolsters during cornering to help keep you centered in your seat when the M5 is in full attack mode on a winding mountain road.

Yes, BMW has gone and created the perfect car––sort of.

For the record, we love this car. The thing is, when you initially acquire the car, you have to be ready to dig deeply into the iDrive’s sub-menus while thoroughly thumbing the owner’s manual to set the new M5 up the way you really want it to run.

The good news is that once you’ve hit the books and put in the time, you’ll be rewarded with your own personalized, absolute ultimate driving machine. And you only have to do it once, after you've locked in your preferences they're immediatel available at the touch of a button. Of course, with so many combinations available, odds are, no two M5s will ever be set up identically by their respective owners.

This, of course, begs a few good questions.
1. Does anybody really need all of the performance this car is capable of generating?
2. Why is it so much trouble to learn how to program the car to do so?
3. Why on earth are there so many different combinations available?
4. Why couldn’t BMW just set it up for comfort, aggression and outrageousness, give you a single button to push to choose one of those three parameters, and call it a day?

Of course, most good questions are typically answered with questions...

To wit: Why do some people just buy clothes off the rack, while others go for the tailor-made garments that fit their bodies specifically? 

Ultimately, it’s about more than just money or ability. It’s about having it exactly like you want it. And frankly, if you can afford the $81,895 it takes to put one of these up under you (plus the $3,700 gas-guzzler tax), you deserve to have it your way.

If that’s what you want.

The 2006 BMW M5 may well be the perfect car, but it also proves that even perfection comes with compromises.