Does the combination of M Sport V8 power, a manual 'box and pick-ya-angles handling make the E39 peak M5?
This is more than a simple review of a PH hero car for me. This is my hero car. I don’t mean it’s literally mine – this car is owned by BMW UK – but the E39 M5 was an actual hero car that, after driving one back in about 1999, I just had to buy myself. So a few years later, I did. One of the reasons why I had to have an E39 M5 – and there are many – stretches all the way back to my formative years.
Then one day in 1999 I drove an E39 M5. And when I hoofed that for the first time it was the epoch moment:It didn’t just give me a mild and fleeting shove back in my seat, it properly pinned me there all the way through the rev range in first and second. I was still caged by that glorious invisible force in third, too, and right there and then was when I fell in love with the E39 M5.
All E39s are brilliant bits of kit. It was one of those seminal cars that blew away the opposition completely with what was, clearly, a mighty R and D budget. Even the regular six-cylinder versions were wonderful things: beautifully engineered, well-sorted handling, a superb ride, silky cruising manners and interior quality that was in a different league to pretty much anything else. With that in mind, an E39-based M5 was always going to be exceptional.
Its 400hp arrives at 6,600rpm, but the S62 revs freely to 7,000rpm once those amber warm-up lights have receded and it’s up to temperature. It's such a well-rounded engine, though. On the one hand, it's a highly tuned V8: frenetic and formidable at the top end and capable of destroying an E55 in a drag race. But when you want to expose the other side of the M5’s character – the calm and easy-going mile muncher – you kick back, relax and use the torque.
People moan about the steering, of course. All six-cylinder E39s came with a steering rack, but for packaging reasons the V8s had a steering box instead. It’s not the massive blight some would have you believe, though. It’s not buzzing with feel, sure, but you can always sense the understeer coming and the rate of response is spot on. The M5 had a quicker Servotronic setup, but it wasn’t too quick, so it gives you plenty of confidence to get stuck in on back roads.
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