During my test of the BMW M5 CS, I had the chance to take it to a drag strip and record a blistering sub-11-second quarter-mile time. It was a ton of fun and I was thrilled I had the chance to do it. However, that’s not really the M5 CS’s greatest strength, despite it being excellent at it. Instead, what the M5 CS is best at is murdering race tracks, specifically the Nurburgring. In this new video from Misha Charoudin, we get to see just that, as the M5 CS takes on Germany’s most difficult race track.
The BMW M5 CS is quite possibly the best four-door performance car BMW has ever built. Sure, its 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8, with its 626 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque, is amazing but that’s only a small part of what makes the M5 CS so special. The best parts about it are its handling, balance, and feel. What’s so shocking about that is the standard M5 is the opposite. Its straight-line performance is its main party trick, while the rest of it is quite numb and even a bit boring. Not the CS, though. Its steering is significantly better, its front end feels alive, its chassis feels more playful, there’s more noise, more feel, and more excitement. It’s just a superb driver’s machine and everyone that’s driven it feels the same way.
Watching this video, you can see the capabilities of the M5 CS on track. It’s so fluid and quick to change direction but it doesn’t seem overly twitchy. It’s smooth and precise, with balance and poise. You can tell because you can watch the driver’s inputs, and counter-inputs, at high speed and see how the car responds. Not only is it responsive but it doesn’t ever bite. It’s just smooth and progressive and balanced. The driver looks calm and relaxed throughout all of it, proving that the car provides its operator with a sense of confidence, which is even more important than its capabilities. If the driver can’t trust the machine, it doesn’t matter how capable it is. Thankfully, the M5 CS is both capable and confidence inspiring.
I haven’t driven a massive catalog of high-performance sedans. I’ve never driven an E28 M5, nor have I driven a Chevy SS, or the new Mercedes-AMG E63. However, I have driven the current M5’s most dangerous rival—the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing—and the M5 CS is the best four-door car I’ve ever driven. So it doesn’t surprise me to see it slay the Nurburgring with ease.
