Popped my e39 M5 cherry today.

[Erick]

I've had a similar experience with a brand new E46 ///M3. In Germany, on the Autobahn. It was awesome. It was a friend's, and he said I could drive it for picking him up at the airport in the middle of the night. "Hey, you wanna drive the ///M3?" I've never had such a hard time keeping a straight face... "um, yeah, sure, that sounds okay..." All I had to do was find an unrestricted portion of the Autobahn. My goal was to break 150, I saw 163 (indicated) that day. Awesome.
p.s. 163 on a public road, legally. FTW.

I have a similar experience to that... but the owner saying I could do whatever I wanted was partially because he was marginally drunk lol.... so I didnt do much... but the Autobahn is another fun place to be, especially if you have anything with ///M in your hands. :)

[808BMW]

Only e39 I've driven is my dad 528i, which must be worlds apart from an M5. I will say that I can understand the smoothness, and it is definately more confident at high speed turns (although I think my e30 would outhandle it at the limit, you have to drive the e30 to the limit, the e39 will just cruise up to it with no problems).

At low speed more techical turns (like an autox) the e30's nimbleness comes forward a lot more.

I want a black 540i as my DD once my e30 gets too crazy to be daily driven.

[Jean]

Yep, friend has one. 1st gear is almost useless on it too if you turn traction control stuff off lol. I wouldn't say it's as nimble as the e30 though, it's a great car but once you start pushing it through the corners you'll notice it's size and weight ;)

I love e39 5series, great car!

[Erick]

Yep, friend has one. 1st gear is almost useless on it too if you turn traction control stuff off lol. I wouldn't say it's as nimble as the e30 though, it's a great car but once you start pushing it through the corners you'll notice it's size and weight ;)

I love e39 5series, great car!

It's funny, it's been a while since I had a stock handling e30 to push around, but I can swear it's VERY VERY similar to what my e30 was.... even in the tighter corners. Even if it isnt, the M5 still does not act it's size.

[golde30]

LUCKY. i also hope to own an m5 in the near future...although, smashing on some1 elses car would always be a blast :-P .

[Arkangel]

The best that I've had is I've gotten a ride in a 2002 540i (which was frickin' sweet), and then a 2006 M5 (orgasmic)!!!! These cars are beautiful, and I would love to own one as well as the rest of you! It definitely brought a smile to my face.........:D

[CleanAzzE30z]

Ive always wanted to drive one. FUCK!!! Nice Erick.


Mariano

[cramer]

I agree with just about everything you've written, besides:

Handling wise, the car does not act its size. It's as nimble as an e30.

The E39 M5 is a 4000lb car and it feels like it. Granted it's one of the best 4000lb cars I've driven handling wise.... but even with KWv2s on my M5, it is not even close to my E30 in the handling department.

Now straight line acceleration, there is no contest S62>S14 ;)

[Erick]

I never drove a stock M3 tho :p Maybe it's been a while since I drove a stock non-M e30 either.... it really did not feel like a 4000lb car.

[Axxe]

I got to beat on my Dad's E39 540i Msport, and have been driven in an E39 M5. Amazing cars, feel much smaller than they are, however realistically, I'd prefer a 540i 6 speed over and M5 simply because of price and maintance. I'd also feel really bad winter driving an M5.

[arnibjorn]

Since we are talking about M5 how do you like this vid?

http://www.onno.is/thordur/almennt/leikdagur240906/Nonni_M5.wmv

The tires were pretty fucked up after 3-4 laps! :D

[DarkWing6]

I got a similar oportunity a couple years back. I would write out my experiance but rwdrift took care of that in the original post. I agree with Cramer about the handling. It's so powerful it overcomes the 4000lbs, but you can still feel the size in the corners.

[aschmidt]

Haha, awesome! Funny, because I was also given the opportunity to drive one (as hard as I wanted) a couple days ago. I'm not so sure I'll ever look at the e30 the same way ever again. I'm never going to forget that car. It was insane..

[german g]

you lucky dog:p

///M5...best sedan ever IMO..

[Erick]

If price was not a factor, I'd agree with you 100%.