What is it?
The BMW M5 Competition is the new extra-powerful, sharpened and honed version of the M Division’s already pretty powerful and sharp BMW M5 super-saloon. We drove it in the summer on Portuguese roads; now's our chance to find out how well it takes to British ones.
This car is a result of BMW M’s decision to spin off at least one added-performance ‘special standalone model’ from every M car it makes from now on. That standalone model might be branded Competition, like this one, or it might be a CS, a GTS or possibly even something all-new. The suspense is unbearable, isn’t it? Whatever they’re called, there has been plenty already in what seems like a short space of time, and, quite clearly, there will be plenty more.
The clever bit is that, by committing to making them as a matter of course, BMW M evades much of the cynicism you might otherwise confer on it for milking yet more money out of the early adopters who always rush to buy one of the first examples of any M car on the market. If you want the ultimate M2, BMW M4, M5 or M8, you’ve now been put on notice that it almost certainly won’t be one of the very first ones in the showroom.
And if you choose to buy an early car anyway, run it for a year and then chop it in for the new and improved Competition version? Well, more fool you. Some would simply call that effective product lifecycle management.
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by the way this thing
by the way this thing produces nearly 700hp not 616 like the specs say.
Yawn....
I don't get why people buy BMW, they all look identical when they're riding 2 inches off my back bumper on the motorway.
Do people not want some kind of distinction for all this money? (The new Alfa's seem nice)
For me, these cars are some of the most uninspiring machines on the planet, and for cars that apparently 'drive well' it's pretty funny that nearly every nurburgring crash video on youtube is basically a BMW idiot tailspin compilation.
Nah, doesn't appeal.
M5 Competetion Vs M5
From your review of the M5 Competetion the first time and this second time in the UK, it's clearly not as good as the M5 all round!
Pointless if you ask me!
BMW are only chasing sales to become number one by every means possible!
Why don't they put the best into the M5 and make it as good as it can possibly be, instead of another nich one called Competetion?!