2012 BMW M5 - The beast is unleashed!!!

The über-sedan fights back with 560 horsepower and a brace of turbochargers.

BY EDDIE ALTERMAN 
September 2011

It’s probably fair to say that the previous BMW M5 (E60) crawled a bit too far up its own posterior. That fourth generation of the archetypal sports sedan was a complicated and abstruse car, with a clumsy automated manual gearbox, a V-10 that prized horsepower over torque, and a series of driver interfaces that was only slightly easier to ­follow than Swedish experimental cinema. Despite its 106-hp advantage over the M5 it replaced, it was somehow less thrilling and not as visceral, and its relentless pursuit of speed, though noble, came at the expense of everyday drivability. The E60 M5 was a car that was only truly happy plowing into an autobahn fog bank at 155 mph.

Specifications:

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
BASE PRICE (est): $90,000

ENGINE TYPE: twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection

Displacement: 268 cu in, 4395 cc
Power (SAE net): 560 hp @ 7000 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 502 lb-ft @ 1500 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual, 7-speed dual-clutch automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 116.7 in Length: 193.3 in
Width: 74.5 in Height: 57.1 in
Curb weight*: 4350 lb

PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):
Zero to 60 mph: 3.9 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 9.1 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.2 sec
Top speed (governor limited): 155–190 mph

PROJECTED FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST):
EPA city/highway driving: 14/22 mpg
*Seven-speed transmission.

Original article here:
http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/11q3/2012_bmw_m5-preview