I know to some of you this is boring for you, or you dealership/mechanic types.
My Bosses Boss (so VP) brought his brothers 2003 E39 M5 with 27K miles in today for me to play with, and oddly enough, it was not raining for once.
the only E39 I had driven before was an E39 Automatic 2002 530i, so the M5 was kinda familier.
Cool tidbits I noticed was when I put it in Reverse, the passenger sidemirror automatically started looking down so I could see the curb, somewhat nifty.
The E-Throttle took a little getting used to, it made it seem like the motor had similar throttle response to my E30 (which I know is not the case, but it felt like it)
The clutch was VERY light, that really suprised me, very little effort to work with it. Steering was light and responsive, and the brakes were amazing.
The shifter had a little too long of a throw for my liking, but still felt tight.
Just like the E46 M3 SMG I drove, it had the E-Redline, which is really cool imho, as well as enough buttons to make a geek like me happy.
Driving position was great, and the quality was much nicer then the E60 M5 IMHO, it just felt more hand built.
After poking around the parking lot tinkering with the buttons, I enabled sport mode and disabled DSC, hopped on the freeway and punched it. The Acceleration was not quite as nice as the E46 M3, however the exhaust note, and smooth engagement was amazing, Once i got the rear end in check in 3rd gear, I noticed I was doing 110mph and still accelerating like crazy. I then started tinkering with a few things. In 6th gear at 80mph, it feels amazingly smooth and quiet, it just accepts the roads conditions and deals with it so you don't have to. I then tinkered with some acceleration runs with DSC and Sport on/off, and noticed that DSC, while quite invasive, does still allow a good amount of fun. I still perfer it off though.
I turned around in Bellevue, and see how it did on a nice banked onramp, got on the throttle pretty hard, and it just held ground without issue, came out of the 25mph corner at around 55 in 2nd and punched it, nailed 3rd and was once again in triple digits before i knew it.
Overall I was damn impressed with it. I was not really that impressed with the E46 M3 SMG, although I think the transmission was mainly to blame, however the E39 M5 is truely an amazing car, and it sure as hell put a smile on my face.
Anyway, that was my fun for today, no pictures, however it was a 2003 Fully loaded every feature known to man E39 M5 ;)
My Bosses Boss (so VP) brought his brothers 2003 E39 M5 with 27K miles in today for me to play with, and oddly enough, it was not raining for once.
the only E39 I had driven before was an E39 Automatic 2002 530i, so the M5 was kinda familier.
Cool tidbits I noticed was when I put it in Reverse, the passenger sidemirror automatically started looking down so I could see the curb, somewhat nifty.
The E-Throttle took a little getting used to, it made it seem like the motor had similar throttle response to my E30 (which I know is not the case, but it felt like it)
The clutch was VERY light, that really suprised me, very little effort to work with it. Steering was light and responsive, and the brakes were amazing.
The shifter had a little too long of a throw for my liking, but still felt tight.
Just like the E46 M3 SMG I drove, it had the E-Redline, which is really cool imho, as well as enough buttons to make a geek like me happy.
Driving position was great, and the quality was much nicer then the E60 M5 IMHO, it just felt more hand built.
After poking around the parking lot tinkering with the buttons, I enabled sport mode and disabled DSC, hopped on the freeway and punched it. The Acceleration was not quite as nice as the E46 M3, however the exhaust note, and smooth engagement was amazing, Once i got the rear end in check in 3rd gear, I noticed I was doing 110mph and still accelerating like crazy. I then started tinkering with a few things. In 6th gear at 80mph, it feels amazingly smooth and quiet, it just accepts the roads conditions and deals with it so you don't have to. I then tinkered with some acceleration runs with DSC and Sport on/off, and noticed that DSC, while quite invasive, does still allow a good amount of fun. I still perfer it off though.
I turned around in Bellevue, and see how it did on a nice banked onramp, got on the throttle pretty hard, and it just held ground without issue, came out of the 25mph corner at around 55 in 2nd and punched it, nailed 3rd and was once again in triple digits before i knew it.
Overall I was damn impressed with it. I was not really that impressed with the E46 M3 SMG, although I think the transmission was mainly to blame, however the E39 M5 is truely an amazing car, and it sure as hell put a smile on my face.
Anyway, that was my fun for today, no pictures, however it was a 2003 Fully loaded every feature known to man E39 M5 ;)
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