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This site is dedicated to owners of the E39 M5, arguably the last of the true M super-saloons. 

The E39 BMW M5 was the car that started the German saloon horsepower war. despite weighing 1826 kg, the E39 M5 could really handle. It could run rings around the comparable E55 AMG Mercedes or Audi RS6. The M5 could hang with the best sports cars of the day on a track. Based on the 540i, BMW took used basics of its 4.4 litre engine and bumped it up to 5.0 litres (BMW says 5, but it’s really 4.9), giving it 400 bhp and 369 lb-ft of torque (500 Nm), and a 7,000 rpm redline. Mated to a 6-Speed manual and a limited-slip differential, the M5 was a real monster. A monster that can hit 60 mph in 4.7 seconds. A car that could hit 60 in under 5.0 seconds in 1998 was bordering on supercar performance, especially with a top speed of 186mph (limited to 155mph) Certain Ferraris of the time were not doing it much faster. That’s blisteringly fast, and even by today’s standards, for a luxury saloon. 

The E39 has been immortalised as the finest M5 of all time – appearing in the top 5 M cars of ALL TIME in nearly all BMW motoring journals.

Regardless of how fast or high-performance new M5s will get, or even how good they may actually be, we have to agree with the purists. The current M5 really is a fantastic car, and probably best in class at the moment. we have nothing against it, in fact we like it very much. But if we were given both sets of keys –  the current M5 and the E39 M5,  we wouldn’t even think about it. We would grab the E39’s and never look back. 

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