Man Maths: BMW M5 (E60)

The question on your lips is likely which of the six generations of M5 caught me on the line and reeled me in? For a while, I thought it was the E34. I’m a sucker for that straight-six engine born out of motorsport, and fell increasingly for the communicative and balanced chassis, which revelled in being pushed up to and beyond the limits of adhesion in a way that some other M5s do not. And then there’s the looks; I tried and failed to walk away from the E34 without turning back to admire that clean, crisp, three-box silhouette one more time…

And then I jumped into the V10-powered E60 and went yowling down the road into the first set of corners. In that instant, logic was sucked out of the lowered window while flooding in came the sound of a high-revving V10 surging past peak torque at 6100rpm.

That last statistic – 384Ib ft beyond 6000rpm – tells you nearly everything you need to know about the E60. It is a car and engine that needs to be thrashed to make the sort of progress that you’d imagine comes with the promise of a 500bhp supersaloon.

But when you do, the sound of that V10 and the surge toward the horizon is ample reward (though Andrew doesn’t agree). As someone who drives a Honda Integra Type R DC2, I enjoy recalibrating my technique to get the best from a car, because it adds to the sense of occasion. And given that a 20-year-old M5 is likely to be more weekend thrill than daily driver, it’s the sort of compromise I could live with because it’s such a stark counterpoint to modern, turbocharged performance cars. Maybe you could too.

As for the chassis, it’s as good as I remembered. When it was new I drove the E60 both in isolation and in comparison tests with cars like the Mercedes-Benz CLS55 AMG and Maserati Quattroporte, and when you drove fast they simply went to pieces while the M5 kept its composure. Back in the present, on some of the best roads Wales has to offer, I found it an entirely transparent, communicative and confidence-inspiring thing.

I fully accept the SMG gearbox can be both ponderous and brutal, depending on driving conditions. And I hear tales of reliability woes. But then you can drive around the former while the latter could be said of quite a number of other performance car engines.

So how much do they fetch these days? The good news is they’re surprisingly sensible money. A look around PistonHeads provides examples for less than £20,000, while even a relatively low mileage car with 48,000 miles is being advertised at £25,995. Contrast those prices with an E39 and you’ll see what value that is.

The question is, why is the E60 cheaper than the older V8 model? If it’s a case of reputation dictating market demand, is that reputation well founded and if it is, should you heed the warning and steer clear of an S85-powered M5? Personally, I’d say play a game of V10 roulette and see if you get away with it. But then that’s Man Maths at its most troubling: me trying to live out my M5 fantasies vicariously through your rolling of the dice.

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