The 2018 BMW M5 Competition will arrive Down Under later this year, priced from $229,000+ORC. BMW hasn’t said how many vehicles will be available for Australian buyers.

BMW AUSTRALIA has announced it will list the M5 Competition from $229,000+ORC and that it will go on-sale in the second-half of this year. The M5 Competition is the most powerful M5 ever.

“Within weeks of revealing the BMW M5, we sold out of our initial allocation of 50 units,” said BMW Group Australia CEO, Marc Werner.

“To now have the M5 Competition available to us is fantastic news. With more power and a further refined drive system, the M5 Competition will take the M5 experience to an even higher level,” Werner added.

Like the M2 Competition, the M5 Competition is a standalone model and not just a ‘package’. BMW’s boffins have fiddled with the car’s 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 and found an extra 19kW, boosting output to 460kW at 6000rpm and 750Nm of torque from 1800-5800rpm. This allows the thing to sprint to 100km/h in just 3.3 seconds and onto 200km/h in just 10.8 seconds (or 0.3 seconds faster than the M5). The engine is mated to the M5’s eight-speed automatic transmission and gets its power to the ground via that car’s M xDrive all-wheel drive system; this allows the driver to switch from rear-drive to all-wheel drive via the iDrive controller. Like the tweaked engine, there’s a bespoke M Sport exhaust for the M5 Competition.

The engineers made further tweaks to the chassis, including a 7mm lower ride height (compared to the M5) new engine mounts, increased negative camber at the front with racing-style ball joints replacing rubber mounts for the rear suspension toe links. Spring rates have been increased by 10%, there’s a new mounting design for the front anti-roll bars and a tweaked rear anti-roll bar. M compound brakes are standard on the M5 Competition with M Carbon Ceramic discs available as a cost option. Forged 20-inch alloys are standard.

Beyond engineering changes, there are design tweaks to stand the model apart from the M5. These include, body colour door handles and high-gloss trims, like the wing mirror caps and the M gills on the front flanks. High gloss is also on the kidney grille and in various other places around the outside of the car. On the inside, there are black seat belts with striped BMW M GmbH stitching and piped floor mats with the M5 logo, while the ‘M Competition’ graphic lights up when the start button is depressed.

BMW Australia is holding back final specifications until closer to the vehicle’s launch date. Stay tuned.