Not too long ago, a BMW M5 was the most puristic car available in its class.
An atmospheric, high revving engine, rear-wheel drive and if there was an automatic gearbox,
it only worked if you were pushing it to the edge, because it had to change gear as quick as possible.
And a Porsche from back in the day was a sports car, a coupé with a big combustion engine.
And now, we'll fast forward to 2018.
This is the new BMW M5. It produces 600 horsepower from a...
biturbo V8, it has four-wheel drive and an 8-speed fully automatic gearbox...
with torque converter.
Over there is a Porsche from 2018. A five-door station wagon, with a plug...
Yep. This really is a plug-in hybrid, but it's not only a hybrid for economical reasons,
instead... Or rather mostly, it's a hybrid for more performance.
Next to the 4.0-litre V8 producing 550 horsepower from the Turbo, this Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid...
is fitted with an electric motor as well, producing 136 horsepower and 400 Nm of torque.
Unfortunately, you can't add those numbers up, but you can get close.
The result? 680 horsepower and 850 Nm of torque,
between 1.400 and 5.500 RPM. And that means this car goes like hell.
It's crazy how frightening quick this car really is.
It weighs 2.400 kg, but it's like you're in warp speed.
Porsche is one of the manufacturers which understands launch control, so it's simple.
You put the car in the most sportive mode, you press the brakes when you're stationary,
you go full throttle and if you release the brakes, your head kind of gets separated from your body.
It's incredibly agressive, and the double clutch PDK-gearbox really helps.
It has very hard and dry gear changes, and it's so incredibly agressive,
you'll often feel sorry for the technology. It's almost like the driveshafts tend to explode...
So yeah, it's a plug-in hybrid, but still, it's mostly a Porsche.
It has been developed from the thought of being a sports car, so everything is direct and precise.
But on the other hand, it has a 14,1 kWh battery pack in the back.
If you fully charge that, which takes between 2,5 to 7,5 hours,
depending on your loading station, and you'll have a car which can do 40 fully electric kilometres.
It won't be incredibly quick, because it only produces a modest 136 electric horsepower,
but still, it's 40 kilometres of quietness and driving without emissions.
So you'll be conscious about the environment as well.
And you have to be, because when the electric power runs out,
you'll be doing 7,5 to 8 kilometres per litre, and that's when you're trying your best.
So yeah, it's able to do both, because it has mastered both sides of the spectrum.
And that's my point of criticism. If you're going very fast,
it's fantastic. The brakes offer a lot of feedback, the gear changes are direct, the engine feels alive,
the electric motor processes the turbo lag... Also, if you're just cruising along,
it's all without a flaw, but it's the gray area between those two sides...
where the drivetrain doesn't really know what to do. That's because the double clutch PDK-gearbox...
has to process the power, has to select the gear and it has to make sure both power sources can do their jobs.
Sometimes you can feel that and even though it's not incredibly annoying,
but this car costs more than €200.000, and for that money it has to be perfect,
but this isn't. The same goes for the brakes,
because if you go easy on the brakes, it regenerates on the electric motor. All good.
If you brake very hard, especially with these direct carbon ceramic brakes,
which is hard braking with a lot of feeling... But the moment you go from easy braking to very hard braking,
you're gonna notice, and that's too bad.
The car gets close to perfection, but it just can't reach it.
The chassis however... That's disgustingly good.
Again, this car weighs 2.400 kg, but you've got air suspension,
four-wheel steering, a LSD on the rear axle, four-wheel drive,
and all of those systems are working together. There's so much feeling in everything.
So if you're going fast, you can feel it's a lot of mass but it's like...
It's like an obese Olympic sporter. It shouldn't be able to do this, but it does.
And it feels nice, it feels good, there's a lot of feedback...
And if you take a little step back, the air suspension raises the car a little,
the dampers loosen up and this becomes a GT-like car.
Not annoying at all. The spread of its capabilities is so incredibly wide.
It's a sports car, it's a GT and even though it's not able to do everything perfectly...
when it comes to technology or ergonomically, because the interior has some flaws,
it's a car which can do a whole lot incredibly good. The BMW isn't going to win that easy...
Luckily, BMW hasn't released the new M5 without fully completing it.
The big news was the four-wheel drive. Finally, because the previous M5 had some difficulties...
sending all of the torque to the rear wheels. Those times are over now.
You've got four-wheel drive now, so you've got a lot more traction.
The four-wheel drive is around when you want it to be and if you want to spice it up,
that's possible as well, because it'll send more power to the rear wheels.
You can also shut it off completely, but you'll have to shut off the ESP as well.
That's when you can do unlimited donuts, write off your car or do other fun stuff.
That's one of the technological perks. Another technological perk is the M-LSD between the rear wheels,
which makes sure the rear axle does most of the work. All of those sensors are connected to a central intelligence...
which calculates, according to your settings, if you want more driving fun, maximum performance...
or more security. That means it's very variable as well,
but it's not as variable as the Porsche Panamera. That can become a very comfortable car,
which isn't the case with this M5. It's not an annoying car,
it won't be tiring, but you'll notice it always feels hard.
Hard, very hard or incredibly hard. It will never feel GT-like, and that's because of the lack of air suspension.
On the other hand, it's 500 kg lighter,
and you'll notice. That's why I think this will be quicker around a track.
You won't find the limit with these cars on public roads, not without a death wish that is.
But I think you can drive the M5 faster on a track, but you're going to have to learn how to get there.
The nice thing about the Porsche is that it offers a lot of feedback. The steering, the brakes...
You'll almost immediately have an idea where the limit will be. You can feel it coming and despite the weight,
you'll feel confident enough. In this BMW, the seats are great but they're too high up,
the ceramic brakes absolutely know how to stop the car, but they're over-assisted,
but if you slightly overdo it, you'll be kissing the windshield...
The steering can become heavier, but it will never have a lot of feeling to it.
It's not bad or anything, but Porsche can do a better job,
and they do. So when it comes to pushing it to the limit,
you have to learn how to drive this BMW M5, but when you've done that...
This become such an amazing machine. That's when you notice how much 500 kg actually is.
It corners way easier, it's sharper, it can hold off understeer for longer...
It's just more agile, and that's quite a compliment for a car which weighs 1.800 kg.
I'm not as positive about the engine though. Basically, it's the same 4.4-litre biturbo V8 from the previous M5.
However, where the previous engine ended with a special, 600 horsepower 'final' version,
this starts with 600 horsepower, with the special versions yet to come.
Sure, it's a lot and because it's lighter,
it's just as quick, despite being down on power and torque.
It's an engine which just keeps going, it never seems to end.
I mean, it's very effective, but it just misses that little bit of extra spectacle.
Right, it's a V8, so it'll never sound bad,
but the Porsche really sounds violent, and that speaks to something primitive inside of me.
This M5 doesn't do that, it sounds a lot flatter.
Especially if you turn off the sports exhaust, because the sound from the speakers will disappear as well.
That's when you'll notice how much it fakes it sound. It's just not very good.
I do like the 8-speed automatic gearbox. It doesn't have the hard and dry blows from Porsche's PDK,
which lets you know this is a BMW and a Porsche is a Porsche.
The speed it changes gear though, is on the same level, or might be even quicker.
So everything put together, they're incredibly close whilst they are completely different.
It's pretty funny actually. If two manufacturers try to make a daily usable sporty car,
they both get to a whole different result. You'll notice the Porsche has sportier origins.
That's noticable in a lot of things, the launch control for example.
That's a lot harder in this BMW. You'll have to follow a six-step program,
you'll have to turn off the ESP and by the time you've set it all up,
the Porsche will be two kilometres further and half of the time it doesn't even work in this BMW.
Go! - Eh?!
But when it comes to the ergonomics as a whole, so with iDrive, it's better in here.
The Porsche looks incredibly good, even better than the inside of this 5-series,
but if you want to change the direction of the vents, you'll have to use the touchscreen.
That doesn't make sense at all. Both cars are practical,
but what they share, is that they're able to create spectacle in daily usable cars.
And even though the Porsche is more comfortable, this BMW is lighter.
That goes on and on for a bit. What they share as well is that they're both fantastic...
and they've got huge prices. The Porsche maybe even more than this BMW.
That starts at almost €160.000, but this will almost set you back €200.000.
The Porsche comes with one other advantage though.
That'll go over 300 km/h as standard, whilst it's an option for this BMW, costing you €2.616...