Road Test: BMW M5 Touring

Engine: 4,999cc, V10 cylinders, 40 valves, 507bhp at 7,750rpm, 384lb ft of torque at 6,100rpm

Transmission: seven-speed sequential gearbox, rear-wheel drive

Performance: 155mph (limited), 0-62 in 4.8sec, 18.8mpg official average, CO2 361g/km

The BMW M5 Touring is a practical estate car with a 507bhp V10 engine. It's an automotive oxymoron, a sense/sensibility incongruity which calls to mind those Volvo 850 estate cars that raced in the early-1990s British Touring Car Championship with cardboard cut-out labradors in the back.

Maybe the incongruity helps to justify the M5 Touring's existence, because the CO2 output certainly doesn't (unlike with the BMW 118d, tested last week). To carry, say, two people at huge speeds, as you might in a Ferrari 599, can seem slightly selfish. But to do huge speeds with five people and/or a cargo, maybe plus hounds, seems somehow easier to justify because there's greater benefit from the time saved.

Besides, thrills are good. They keep us young and interested in life, as long as they are enacted with skill and judgment. Used properly, fast cars aren't dangerous. It's the misuse of them that can be.

Neverthless, some of you readers might find the speed part hard to take. Each to his/her own, I say. But even the most fervent supporter of road safety pressure-group Brake's retrogressive view on pace must concede that there's something beguiling about an estate car {I}able{I} to scorch from a standstill to 62mph in 4.8 seconds and not let up until it reaches its electronically-limited 155mph, even if that pace potential is seldom aired. Without the limiter it would reach 200mph, an extraordinary notion for an estate car.

The M5 Touring isn't the only V10-engined estate car, by the way. Audi has an S6 Avant, which uses a version of the engine from its Volkswagen group stablemate, the Lamborghini Gallardo. But the S6 lacks the M5's hard core, a lack which a future RS6 might address. That said, this M5 is a softer animal than the first examples of the current V10-engined breed.

We first tried a V10-engined M5, a saloon version, back in September 2004. The engine was a truly extraordinary thing, happy to spin up to 8,250rpm, sounding like a previous-generation Formula One car, its 507bhp the result of pressing a switch to liven it up from the start-up default setting of 400bhp (a gimmick, I feel). Even ambling along a crowded street was an occasion, the exhaust barking savagely each time the sequential-shift transmission changed down to the accompaniment of an automatic, progress-smoothing accelerator blip to speed the engine up for the lower gear.

That gearbox, however, wasn't quite so good. It's a seven-speed Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) with paddle-shifters on the steering wheel and a clunky automatic mode, and you had to try quite hard to keep the shifts smooth even in the slowest of the six selectable gearshift speeds. And the difference between each of the six shift-speed settings was so incremental as to seem almost pointless.

You could live with it, though, while maybe craving a proper manual. That craving could not be satisfied because the gearbox was designed specifically as an SMG, rather than being (as with most similar systems) a normal manual gearbox with electro-hydrualic actuators in place of a gear lever. Besides, seven gears are too many for a normal gearshift pattern. More than that, this gearbox is designed with the gears that take the biggest loads positioned in the casing's strongest places rather than in a normal sequence. If controlled by a gear lever, the shift pattern would thus be second, fourth, sixth, seventh, fifth, third, reverse, first. So, no manual.

But something has changed between that early M5 V10 and this Touring. Perhaps in response to criticisms of jerkiness, the programming of the gearshift speeds has been altered. All the shifts, in all six shift-speed modes, are slower. This is no doubt kinder to the gearbox and better for long-term durability, and it's easier to be smooth now, but it takes away some of the M5's mechanically-explosive edge. What was needed was to increase the differences between the modes, so that the fastest one stayed as hyper-alert as it used to be.

There's still the 'launch control' function if you're feeling brave, though. It works like this. Switch off all traction and stability aids. Select first gear by pushing the central spring-loaded lever forward, and hold it there. Floor the accelerator, which will make the engine speed up to 5,000rpm and stay there. Release the lever, achieve blast-off and that 4.8-second 0-62mph time to the accompaniment of wheelspin, tyre smoke and an automated sequence of optimally-timed gearshifts so violent you'll never dare try it again. And if you were using your Touring in its cargo-carrying role, the cargo would by now surely be smashed to pulp.

Sweeping, open roads are the M5 Touring's optimum playground, although the seven gears make it a very relaxed motorway cruiser if you can restrain your right foot (the 155mph maximum is achievable in fifth, incidentally). The estate-car part of the looks trumps the M5 part in visual impact, so despite its deep-centre wheels and quadruple exhaust pipes it creates a stealthy, non-confrontational impression. Three firmness settings for the adaptive dampers allow a remarkably supple ride for something so driver-delighting, too. Drive discreetly and no passenger would ever suspect the potential for fireworks unless s/he has an ear for the V10's unusual harmonic bark.

But when there's no-one around and you're in touch with your co-ordinated, toned, thrill-seeking side, this practical estate car can morph into something akin to a supercar. It will be in the fastest shift-speed setting, with the firmest suspension and the DSC traction/stability control set to the M5-specific M Dynamic mode ??“ a degree of dynamic freedom above that offered by the DTC mode in other BMWs, which already loosens the strictures of the system's default start-up setting. The safety reins are still there, but you can have more fun before they pull. Or you can turn the DSC off completely, but there's no point in doing that on the road.

There's even an M Drive button on the steering wheel which can be programmed with your preferred settings, so you can use that to trigger your M5's personality transformation in one go. And off you head into a surreal world of estate cars doing entirely un-estate-car-like things, letting the engine sing in its beyond-5,000rpm sweet zone, feeling a steering crispness, a handling balance and a reserve of grip which together make you think you're driving a lithe track-day special clothed in an estate-car silhouette body, cosseted in soft leather all the while.

But there's no need to wake up from the dream, because it's real. Such pace and ability might be overkill for the reality of our congested, bottlenecked, strait-jacketed roads, but that has always been the case with fast cars that excite the heart. At least the BMW M5 Touring is useful, too. Meet the ultimate multi-purpose vehicle.

Rivals

Audi RS4 Avant: ??51,825. Another estate version of a very powerful saloon, this time with a 420bhp, high-revving V8 and four-wheel drive. Smaller than an M5, manual gearbox, one of best Audis ever.

Chrysler 300C Touring SRT-8: ??40,990. The 300C is the best car Chrysler makes, and this high-waisted, menacing-looking estate version has a 425bhp, 6.1-litre V8. Fast, effortless, entertaining.

Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG estate: ??69,085. Expensive next to rivals, but AMG's 6.2-litre, 514bhp V8 is less frantic than the M5's engine and even mightier. Seven-speed transmission is a normal auto.

Source: [url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/features/motoring/article2592149.ece]Belfast Telegraph[/url]