The golden standard in the world of sporty executive sedans, the M5 rolled out in 1984 with the six-cylinder lump of the M1 underhood. The second generation retained the inline-six muscle of the original, yet leveled up in terms of practicality with the introduction of a five-door wagon body style.
As expected, the longroof is extremely rare by M5 standards. A meager 891 units were finished, of which nobody knows for certain how many are in working order nowadays. The E39 followed suit in four doors exclusively, but as fate would have it, BMW revived the M5 Touring in the early 2000s.
Enter the E61, a no-nonsense family car that packs a naturally-aspirated V10 punch. Just over 1,000 units were produced as opposed to nearly 20,000 examples of the sedan, which makes this generation of the M5 Touring all that more special in the sport utility vehicle-centric automotive landscape. Pictured on a derestricted stretch of the Autobahn, the car in the video below is much obliged to hit 330 kilometers per hour (that’d be 205 mph) with ease.
That’s not exactly accurate, though, because automakers calibrate speedometers to indicate lower speeds. The Dragy app on the driver’s iPhone appears to show a GPS-verified 299 kilometers per hour, which is about 186 mph in the imperial system.
To whom it may concern, the E60 and E61 were rated by Munich’s favorite son at no more than 305 kilometers per hour (190 mph). But as standard, the limiter kicked in at 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph) because of a gentleman’s agreement between most German manufacturers. Only the mad lads at Porsche did not partake in this pitiful charade.
Photo: BMW
Tipping the scales at 1,880 kilograms (make that 4,145 pounds), the E61-generation M5 Touring came with a semi-automatic transmission exclusively. The dreaded SMG III, that is, a jerky automated manual that everyone and their dog would replace with the optional manual gearbox.
Unfortunately for those interested in the M5 Touring, the German automaker offered a six-speed stick shift on the sedan only, and only for the North American market. Of the 9,491 sedans produced for the United States and Canada, merely 1,366 received the ZF-supplied manual from the 550i.
It's kind of curious that auto-heavy North America received a manual to the detriment of the Old Continent. The row-your-own box would’ve been a hit in Germany, especially. After all, almost every German with a driver’s license knows how to drive stick. Going forward, the manual transmission will be gone for good from the BMW M lineup no later than 2029. That's when the G87-generation M2 is due to end production.
Looking at the glass half full, the M division revived the Touring body style for the M3. Next year, the M5 will follow suit with the G99 codename for the more practical of two available body styles. On this occasion, the mad professors at M will combine a twin-turbo V8 engine with a ZF-supplied automatic and the plug-in hybrid system of the aesthetically challenged XM sport utility vehicle.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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