BMW has sent its already-impressive M5 off to the gym and the result is the even more muscular M5 Competition, which will elbow aside the standard M5 V8 when the souped-up sedan arrives here by year's end.
The M5 Competition promises more straight-line punch and more grip for hooks and uppercuts in the curves.
A bold badge on the boot shouts Competition to the cars behind – and there will be plenty – with the brawny brawler sporting a $229,900 price tag to rule the top end of BMW’s M-car range.
Headline numbers for the BMW M5 Performance is a 0-100km/h sprint in just 3.3 seconds, while BMW in Germany also quotes a 0-200km/h time - irrelevant in Australia - of just 10.8 seconds.
Those sharper numbers come from more power and torque from the 4.4-litre twin turbo V8 engine, which now shapes up with 460 kiloWatts and more response over a slightly wider band.
Chassis tweaking sees the car sitting lower with more aggressive settings for track work, something that the M division at BMW has always taken as a focus.
As expected, the M5 Competition has a new design of lighter-weight alloy wheel and the booming exhaust note is also boosted with a throatier exhaust.
Only 50 M5 Competitions are set for Australia and are due in time to give yourself an early Christmas gift.
“We’re expecting cars in the fourth quarter" BMW Australia spokesperson Lenore Fletcher tells Australian Business Traveller, adding that the Competition "will take the place of the existing M5."
Fletcher says there's already "huge interest in the car from dyed-in-the-wool BMW performance people.”
As Motoring Editor for Executive Traveller, Paul Gover spends less time at his Gold Coast home than he does on the road (literally) test-driving the best of the four-wheel world.
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31 Jan 2016
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How can you say that the 0-200kmh time is irrelevant in Australia...surely the straight at Eastern Creek will cope... :)
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