BMW has started its hype generator for the upcoming M5, with this first online teaser video.
I’m at the office and can’t watch the footage right now – what can we see of the new BMW M5?
It’s officially called a ‘first glimpse’, and in and amongst shots of a partially-camouflaged prototype M5 roaring through a tunnel and powersliding along a snowy test track, M Division boss Dr Kay Siegler appears talking about the new car in the workshop of M HQ. Segler introduces the new M5 as ‘a bold business car, which at the touch of a button, becomes a sports car’.
The new BMW M5 – the lowdown
The new F10M-spec M5 is downsizing from the E60’s 5.0-litre V10 for the same 550bhp 4.4 litre twin-turbo V8 found in the X5M and X6M. But rather than the torque convertor autos used by the SUV pair, the new motor is mated to a beefed-up version of the the seven-speed M-DCT double-clutch transmission currently serving in the M3. The new M5 will also inherit much of the current tech from the 5-series, including adaptive dampers and the full range of Efficient Dynamics economy tweaks.
What next – perhaps a glimpse of the BMW M5’s door mirrors unmasked?
We can appreciate your skepticism of drip-fed promotional campaigns, but we’d thought you’d like to see the M5 in action. For those who prefer to avoid the pre-release hype, the M5 will be on show in finished form at the 2011 Frankfurt motor show.