The new BMW M5 moved from the traditional rear-wheel drive setup BMW got us used to, to a whole new layout using all-wheel drive. Dubbed M xDrive, the new system admittedly can send all of its power to the rear wheels alone and should cater to the needs of both conservative old-school fans of the brand and the new-age people more interested in 0-62 mph sprint time. Because, let’s be honest, the move to all-wheel drive was done to improve this aspect and boy, did BMW deliver.
The new M sedan claims it will reach 100 km/h (62 mph) from standstill in a blazing fast 3.4 seconds and, knowing the Germans, that’s a conservative claim. Even so, that figure allows the 600 HP beast to hang with plenty of supercars, actually being faster than a lot of them in a straight line. Sure, that’s not all that counts when it comes to high performance vehicles but for a lot of people, knowing that their four-door mid-size sedan can keep up with an Audi R8 will be enough to make them buy it.
Speaking of which, the current Audi R8 V10 model is actually slower than the new BMW M5, with Audi claiming it will do 62 mph in 3.5 seconds. It’s a split hair close call but it’s still slower. The V10+ is a different story of course, with a claimed 3.2 seconds. Another supercar you wouldn’t expect to be slower than the M5 is the Lamborghini Reventon, the V12-powered limited-run model having a similar 3.5-second 0-62 mph run claim.
The same story applies when talking about the Pagani Zonda F or the Ferrari F50 with the former doing the benchmark sprint in 3.6 seconds and the latter in 3.8 seconds. Last but not least I’d like to mention the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series, a proper supercar that gave BMW fans nightmares. Well, with its 3.7-second sprint it is slower than the new M5 so there you have it, BMW’s long awaited supercar has finally arrived!
