The new M5 Touring led the pack during the inaugural race of the Romanian Retro Racing. Now in its eighth season, the national speed and regularity championship kicked off at MotorPark Romania, where no fewer than 56 cars lined up. BMW was the best-represented automaker, with seven vehicles carrying the famous roundel.
In fact, BMW had even more cars than local automaker Dacia. The 3 Series was the most popular car from Bavaria, with the first three generations on the grid. One of the cars, an E30 in the 325i flavor driven by Andrei Tureanu, triumphed in the speed competition. The Renault 5 Turbo from the Adrian Anton Georgescu—Stefan Marinescu team won the regularity race. At the same time, a good ol’ Trabant 1.1 piloted by Lazăr Farkas finished first in the Street Sport class.
Of all the cars to share the track in Adâncata, the original 6 Series was arguably the nicest-looking. Seeing the G99 alongside classic BMWs is a stark reminder of how much design has changed. This is especially true if we compare the modern styling to the good old days of the E24 or E30. Whether we’ll come to appreciate today’s M5 as much as some of those iconic cars remains to be seen.
One thing is sure – cars will never be as lightweight and small as they were decades ago. Additionally, you can kiss the manual gearbox goodbye since its days are numbered. Don’t blame BMW, though. The German luxury brand must comply with increasingly stricter legislation regarding emissions. Moreover, advanced safety systems are primarily designed to work with vehicles that have automatic transmissions.
But I digress. As you can quickly tell, the M5 Touring shown here didn’t get the fully fledged Safety Car treatment. For the whole shebang, look for the M5 MotoGP Safety Car, which BMW has decked out for both sedan and wagon flavors.
Photos: BMW Romania
