The BMW E60 5 Series and M5 will remain iconic in BMW’s history for a number of reasons. For the regular 5 Series models those reasons revolve mainly about the design, famously penned by none other than Chris Bangle. For the M5, the reasoning revolves around the engine, a 5-liter V10 jewel that gives me the chills to this day. Those days are long gone and after a short stint with forced induction, electric motors are set to take over the automotive world.
However, there are people out there who still own and drive such machines daily. They are called gear heads, petrol heads and all sorts of other things but no matter the name, one thing’s for sure: they love revving the hell out of a good engine. And it doesn’t get a lot better than the S85 mill when it comes to that. The 5-liter V10 revs to a redline of 8,250 RPM and develops 500 HP and 520 Nm (384 lb-ft) of torque in standard guise.
The car we’re looking at here was tuned by the guys from Kelleners Sport. Known around Germany as one of the best tuning companies you can go to if you own a BMW, Kelleners Sport was all about taking atmospheric engines up in terms of horsepower readings and doing it right. Therefore, this S85 got new camshafts, a new exhaust system, Supersprint headers and an ECU tune for an estimate total of 560 – 570 hp.
That’s one of the explanations why it could keep up with the S65 AMG model on the other side of the strip. Even though we’re dealing with an older model, we’re still looking at a turbocharged model which would, in stock guise, put out over 600 HP in Europe. However, weight works in favor of the BMW as does the SMG transmission, as hated as it may be. What’s the outcome? Well, it’s too close to call but more importantly, according to the uploader, the cars were doing close to 170 MPH at the end.
