[MUSIC PLAYING]
[ENGINE REVVING]
The F10M M5 reminds us why we love this particular recipe
for a motor car.
It's quite simple, really.
Take a load of power, 552 horsepower in this case, 502
foot pounds of torque, throw it in quite an ordinary
looking body style, and you have the car for every
opportunity.
In a straight line, this thing will stay with very, very fast
sports cars.
And it's just as comfortable as a normal 5 series.
It's just the perfect recipe for an everyday car.
But for me, most significant about this car is how much
better optimized, how much more rounded an object it is
than the car it replaces.
You see, the old E60 M5 was something I was very fond of.
Really, it was just a racing car powertrain trapped in a 5
series body style.
That V10 had to be revved like a lunatic to get anywhere.
The gearbox was a pain in the ass.
For two or three days, standard road test procedure,
you'd love the car.
But if you had to live with it, you'd get completely fed
up with it after a while.
And then, you'd run out of fuel because it had a thimble
for a fuel tank.
But that car's normally aspirated V10 was a musical
instrument.
This new M5 has two noise-killing turbo chargers
which smother intake noise so effectively, BMW has decided
to pipe fake V8 tunes into the cabin.
It sounds weird.
But you soon get over it.
One thing I really love about this car is the way that BMW M
has listened to the feedback of the people that actually
bought them and ran them, and answered their questions, and
basically sorted out the issues they had with the car.
It's got a bigger fuel tank now.
They got 80 liters.
We've got a brilliant double clutch gearbox that's so much
better than the last SMG in here because the automatic
most is seamless.
And in manual mode, it's like a Ferrari 458.
Wow!
Bang!
Immediate gear changes.
You got loads more torque as well, so the car doesn't need
to be revved out as much.
But if you do want to rev it out, it's still very exciting.
So it rights all of the wrongs of that car.
But here's an Interesting point for you.
In doing so, the BMW's created a twin turbocharged car that's
capable of seating four and a bit people with a big boot
that costs well over 70,000 pounds.
Well, there's another car in the marketplace that has a
very similar specification when you look at it
on a piece of paper.
And it's not the most obvious rival to the M5.
It's currently right behind me.
And by the looks of things, it's about to overtake me
because that's what it seems to do to
everything else on the road.
Of course, I'm not suggesting for a minute that the R35 GT-R
is a direct rival to the new M5, because it's not.
You can probably hear just the ambient noise, the road noise
in this cabin, and it's a far less refined car.
But it's interesting, isn't it, that BMW's recipe for the
new M5 kind of moves into the R35's territory--
twin turbochargers, big body style.
They do share a lot in common apart from the way
they bully a road.
Because honestly, no mistake, nothing bullies a
road like the R35.
It's a quite extraordinary experience.
And in fact, driving it in the UK when the weather's bad
brings out all the very best in the GT-R, all its
extraordinary qualities.
It's not like any other car because it actually feels like
it's wrestling and pulling grit from the surface in a way
that no other car does.
It feels like it's driving its tires into the surface.
It's an extraordinary experience.
And it just means you have so much more usable performance.
OK, it's a bit down on power.
There's 542 horsepower.
But you know what?
Even though it's 10 horsepower shy of the M5, you've probably
got at any one time, because of the type of four-wheel
drive system, I'd say another 150 to 200
horsepower at your disposal.
The systems hardly ever cut in.
And when they do, you don't really feel them.
This is an extraordinary car.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again.
A lot of people complain that the GT-R is a bit soulless,
like a computer game or something.
Absolute nonsense.
How could anything that's got a twin turbocharged V6 with a
trans-axle gearbox that then has to shove a load of power
to the front wheels through a shaft that comes back out the
side of the car, how can that possibly be boring?
It's mechanically fascinating.
There were two real reasons why I got them together.
The first is quite obvious.
They've both got turbocharged charged engines.
They're quite big on the road.
And they can carry four people.
The second is very important.
Speaking to the powers that be back at HQ in New York, these
are two of the most searchable cars on Google.
Why wouldn't you put them together?
2012 GT-R, 2012 M5--
that's search gold.
So that's why they're together.
And even though they're not direct rivals, these two cars
do make you question the other one in interesting ways.
For example, you don't appreciate how big and
slightly cumbersome the M5 can feel at times compared to the
R35 unless you've had a good blat in this car.
It's just extraordinary the way that it can be [INAUDIBLE]
kilograms, or a little bit more, actually, and still feel
so nimble and agile, clever differentials all the way.
Conversely, the interior of this car, even though it's
quite interesting the way it's laid out and quite funky,
quite manga, it's just not got anything compared to the
quality of the BMW, which is just a really beautifully
put-together object with top quality materials.
This is a bit lower rent.
And at the money they're asking in the UK for a GT-R
now does make you question the proposition a little bit more.
But I'll tell you what.
My three days with this car have been exhilarating.
I don't care about the noise.
I think I'd struggle with it every single day.
But everyone that loves driving should be prescribed a
few days in a GT-R every single year.
Because it's just--
well, like this.
[ENGINE HUMMING]
Third, fourth--
it's just incredible, absolutely incredible.
After the GT-R, the M5 does feel like a
very big heavy car.
1,945 kilograms with a bit of luggage and
someone else on board.
That's really a two-ton car.
In this day and age, it's probably not excusable.
It's physically big as well.
I mean, just the space between me and the
passenger is enormous.
It feels like a 7 series in here.
That's because it's kind of 7 series side.
But there is one area where the BMW absolutely crucifies
the GT-R. And that is in terms of cabin quality.
The GT-R used to be a 50,000-pound
proposition in the UK.
It's now 70,000 pounds.
That elevates it to an entirely new level.
Whereas once it used to be this bargain supercar, it's
now priced like a very premium sports coupe, and it doesn't
have any of the trim materials.
It doesn't have the design.
It just lacks the feeling of quality that this car has.
And it shouldn't be underestimated.
Because if I was going to spend a lot of time in either
of them, this is the one I'd want to be in.
These are very much road cars.
But they're also fast enough to land you in real
trouble on the road.
So we're heading to the brilliant Castle Combe
Circuit, which in the lashing rain is scary with a capital
S.
Let's have a bit of race mode and a bit of
traction control off--
in a GT-R, 2012 GT-R. It's absolutely soaking wet at
Castle Combe Circuit.
In some ways, that's a bad place to test a GT-R. In other
ways, it's the perfect place.
Four-wheel drive, this is supposed to be the supercar
that can do anything in any condition.
It is a bit surprising sometimes, though, in the wet,
because if you give it a boot full, it does
that straight away.
Forget all this nonsense about the GT-R being characterless,
bland, and all that rubbish.
This is actually one of the most interesting cars in the
world to behave badly in, because everything I try with
the throttle and the steering, it wants to counteract.
I'm locked in a fight for the differentials.
Watch this.
So we pitch it in to chicane.
I'll oversteer this one way, going to make
it obviously there.
Look at how the differential just said no.
And then it gave me some oversteer on the exit.
It just wanted to understeer through there because the
clever brain said I know Mizuno-san, who developed this
car, would like us to actually go straight now.
We'll try it again going the other way.
I do love this.
That's conventional oversteer.
And then back the other way.
Yeah, that felt more predictable, because I wasn't
fighting the diffs quite so much.
The classic cornering stance is like this, though.
We come second gear into a corner.
As I put the throttle in, the car oversteers.
But as I correct, then the diff straightens the guide.
You see that?
The wheel just straightens.
And there's no point in me fighting that at all.
I've just got to go with it because that's what the car
wants to do.
This is technically one of the most
impressive cars ever made--
542 horsepower now for 2012.
I mean, does it get any faster in these conditions?
It certainly doesn't.
And it's certainly quicker than the new M5.
So the new M5 may have all the technology, the jewel clutch
gearbox, the twin turbo V8.
But ultimately, it's a yobbo.
It's a lunatic.
It's basically a V8, a locking differential,
and two-wheel drive.
But unlike the GT-R, there's nothing to fight here.
You just put the car in, you light the [INAUDIBLE] and you
just ride it out.
Woohoo!
Oh, love it.
Absolutely love it.
But what you do find remarkable about both of these
cars is that you--
[ENGINE REVVING]
--between like 4,000 in the limiter.
They feel normally aspirated, because you can
modulate the throttle.
So we go in again.
Third gear, I'm going to have a [INAUDIBLE] of throttle.
I want to come back out of it again.
Now, I'm just stabbing it a few times to
try to hold it there.
And it doesn't feel turbocharged to me.
It's just feels like a normally aspirated V8.
[TIRES SQUEALING]
[ENGINE REVVING]
[LAUGHS]
You got to love M5s.
There's no other car that does that stuff.
Are they rivals?
Not really.
Is the GT-R faster?
Yes.
Would you rather live with the M5 every day?
Of course you would.
Did I enjoy them every mile and every minute?
Two great cars.
[MUSIC PLAYING]