It’s the first all-wheel drive M sedan
The new M5 is M’s first all-wheel drive passenger car, and the new M5 was developed with 4WD, 4WD Sport and 2WD in mind from the start. The ‘M xDrive’ system it uses is supplied by Canadian company Magna International and is similar to the 7-Series unit, except it has been beefed up with carbon fibre clutch plates.
The M5’s all-wheel drive system helps tame the huge power produced, providing power to the front wheels when traction is lost and when oversteer is imminent, but it’s the software or artificial intelligence ‘brain’ that makes the system work as well as it does. The computer analyses acceleration input, individual wheel spin, slip and lateral loading and the steering angle to continuously adjust the front-rear power bias.
700Nm is weak compared to the Merc E63’s 850Nm from a smaller capacity V8. I thought it was going to be 750Nm, but still well down on the Merc.
It’s an impressive engine in the Mercedes. The M5 will be a fair bit lighter though (in the region of 150-200kg) and the new turbo design might bring more torque lower in the rev range. It’ll be a good battle no doubt. – Alex
If the new M5 is 100kg lighter than the old then it should be ~ 150kg lighter than the E63, but 1700kg would be impressive for such a loaded beast as the M5. I can’t beleive it would be even lighter in the 1650kg range, but that would be epically good. Buy a second hand one in 5 years when it down to about $70K
Yes, 150kg difference to the Merc. If BMW managed to put in an AWD system and drop 150kg from the previous M5, that would be very impressive. – Alex