Hello, you may have seen the new BMW M5 before but today, something different. We’re going
to put it up against the clock and against its rivals, they are the Mercedes AMG E63 S
and the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid to find out which is the quickest of the German
uber saloons. Don’t forget to like and subscribe, by the way. So I’ve got about 600 horsepower,
Daniele in the E63 has about 600, Simon in the Panamera has more like 680 and it’s
a Porsche, but we’ll see, we’re going to do a half mile sprint. Which you’d have
on the road? I don’t know, personal preference I like the engine in the E63, I like the all
round capability of this, I quite like the speed of the Porsche, I’m spending quite
a lot of time in an M5 at the minute and I’m enjoying those times quite a lot. So they’re
all neck and neck, they’re all really close to each other on size on spec, they’re all
very competitive. We’ll see what turbocharged 4-litre V8 engines can do. The Panamera’s launch
control is the easiest to engage, you put the car in sport+, drive, stick your left
foot on the brake and floor the throttle. The Mercedes E63 is rather more complicated,
you have to dial up sport, sport+ or race, race is best, put the ESP in sport, then put
your foot on the brake, then tug both paddles, acknowledge that by pulling an up shift, then
floor the throttle. And the BMW M5 is somewhere between the two, dial everything to sport+,
put the gearbox in manual mode, turn DSC off, then floor the brake, then hit the throttle.
Now the interesting thing about the M5 is that it has a conventional torque convertor
automatic gearbox so that means I put my foot down, I go for the launch control and it already
starts to tug. Although it says launch control is engaged and it raises the revs, you can
feel it pulling and wanting to get away. The car next to me, the Panamera, has a DCT (dual
clutch transmission), that means when it gets to launch control it just goes brrr and the
clutch stays disengaged until he takes his foot off the brake. The Mercedes AMG is slightly
different again, it’s got a 9 speed auto but instead of a torque convertor it has a
multi plate dry clutch so that means also that Dan in that can go like that, then go
like that and away it goes. I can’t do that so I have to come on the throttle later and
hope I’m catching the M5 at its right spot because after a while it goes ‘I can’t
do this anymore, I’m just stressing out the torque convertor,’ when the countdown
comes you have to get it right. 3,2,1, Go! Oh crikey, they are both away, I’m a bit
surprised the AMG is away that much quicker, the Porsche I’m not quite so surprised is
walking away from the both of us. I’m keeping good pace with the E63 now, in fact I’m
starting to draw it back in, am I? No I’m not, it’s close, it’s very, very close.
The Panamera’s launch control then plus it’s part electric drive train means that
it can get from 0-60mph in just 3.12 seconds, that’s faster than a McLaren F1, by the
way! It gets to 100mph in 7.4 seconds, will pass through a standing ¼ in 11.3 seconds
at 124.9mph and a ½ mile in 17.63 seconds at 151.8mph. The E63 S takes a little longer
to get off the line, 3.36 seconds to 60mph but it’s a gap it’s mostly made back by
100mph which it passes through also in 7.4 seconds, the E63 passes a standing ¼ in 11.46
seconds at 126.6mph and it goes through a ½ mile in 17.83 seconds at 153.7mph, that’s
a few 1/10ths behind the Panamera but it is travelling quicker by that point. Finally
the M5, it gets from 0-60mph in 3.48 seconds, maybe that’s down to the less efficient
control system, it passes 100mph in 7.55 seconds and from that point on it never makes back
the ground that it has lost early on, it goes through a standing ¼ at 11.58 seconds at
125.8mph and standing ½ mile in 18.1 seconds at 152mph exactly. It’s a disappointing
3rd place for the M5, it’s plenty fast enough, I promise you. Yes on an airfield you may
be slightly embarrassed by a Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid but the gap over half a mile is
frankly only the time it takes to say Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid. So if you’ve enjoyed this
nonsense please don’t forget to like, subscribe, join us again, remember we are here on the
Youtube at least once a week, we’re here everyday, every minute, every second on Autocar.co.uk
and I’m on Twitter far too much and my cat’s on Instagram, follow @dailymidge.