Merry Christmas From Car Driven & The 2012 BMW M5

Enjoy.

Behold the 2012 BMW M5

Ladies and gentlemen say hello to the F10 M5.

This is not an official release from BMW, in fact, the pic above was snapped from a journalist at an invite-only event where there were strict rules about taking pictures. BMW didn’t want to unleash the M5 officially until April 7th and had an embargo in place. The site, transmissia.net obviously did not get that memo.

Anyway, there’s no real surprises here in terms of design. Despite technically being labeled as a concept by BMW for some reason, this new M5 is clearly production ready. Those wheels probably won’t be black (although black might be optional), but otherwise this is what the production version will look like.

Since this is very much a leak, that means there’s still no official detail on powerplants and the like, but as stated before, it will likely have a V8 under the hood which replaces the outgoing V10. Also, a manual transmission has been confirmed for North America, but oddly BMW hasn’t done so for other markets.

Check back to Car Driven on April 7th, where the M5 will get its official reveal along with answers to many questions! In the meantime, hit the jump to see more pics.

[Automotive Addicts]

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A Half Hour of Awesomeness

I’ve been holding off blogging on the upcoming M5 for a while because I feel the M5 commands a certain respect that should be returned in showing it off in its official form. It deserves better than simple spy shots with weird camoflage and swirly paint jobs.

But this is too good to pass up. You might have seen the shorter version of this film which highlights the M5 cold weather testing and having a good time of it. Well now BMW has leaked the entire video which is about 30 minutes of  tail slides, revving V8 goodness and beautiful still shots.

Right now, all we know is that the V10 found in the previous generation M5 will be replaced by a V8 – although it’s not certain if it will be the 4.4 litre V8 found in the 550i, but if it is, you can be sure it will be tuned to over 550 horses at least.

Also confirmed is the availability of a manual transmission – at least for our market. There were rumours going around that it would be auto only which had BMW purists shouting blasphemy from the hills but BMW has indeed confirmed it for our market. They have yet to confirm it for other markets however.

The official reveal will happen in mid-April. Car Driven will have all the details!

[Youtube]

2012 BMW M5 Takes on the ‘Ring Again

The 2012 BMW M5 is back in the Nurburgring again after a rather embarrassing show last time. BMW has apparently fixed whatever problem knocked it out of commission the last time and we now have some great video spy shots!

The M5 can be seen in the vid taking the apexes with ease and looking damn good in the process. No word on the lap time yet.

Can’t wait to see official pics and specs!

[Youtube]

Oops! Next Gen BMW M5 Gets By With a Little Help From Its Friend

Being the successor to any generation BMW M5 is a tall order. Each variation has been been bigger and better and the next generation M5 is no exception.

There are few details coming out about the next gen M5 other than it is expected to retain the big German V8 found in the X5 M and X6 M with little or no tweaking to the engine. As a result 555 horsepower will be the order of the day. Nothing to sneeze at. That’s 55 horses more than the outgoing model.

As you’d expect, the next generation M5 is going to be faster than the outgoing model as well. Most manufacturers tend to use the infamous Nurburgring as their base for a vehicle’s performance and the next gen M5 was caught doing a few laps. Unfortunately, the next gen M5 isn’t quite ready for any photo ops yet as maxing it out on the ‘Ring recently proved to be too much to ask. It actually broke down on the ‘Ring and had to be towed by a family member back to base to nurse it back to health. The previous generation X5 was happy to help, but embarrassingly enough, the whole mishap was caught by sneaky photographers.

Clearly the next generation M5 isn’t ready for production, but when it is, you can be sure that it will set yet another benchmark in the sport sedan world.

Sidebar, those rims on the M5 are absolutely sick!

[Autoblog]