After the mild disappointment of its emotion-lite predecessor, the current 2019 BMW M5 marks a welcome return to form for the Motorsport division's biggest sedan. (We're not even going to pretend that the M760i qualifies as a true M car.) But BMW's model-development program moves to a staccato drumbeat these days, and we're now driven to focus on the new, fractionally turned-up Competition version.
The new car marks the transition from an option package to a separate trim level, one that's hairier than the standard M5 but some way short of the black-hearted transformation wrought to BMW models such as the M3 CS or the M4 GTS.
Unlike the new M2 Competition, the M5 Competition doesn't replace the regular M5. Instead it will be sold alongside it, carrying a $7300 premium and boasting a modest increase in power, firmer suspension settings, and some very subtle cosmetic tweaks—the most obvious being the Competition label that now appears beneath the M5 badge on the decklid.
The M5's twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V-8 has its own engine code—S63B44T4—and you can read about how it differs from BMW's regular non-M V-8 of the same displacement here.
The increase to 617 horsepower is pretty much a rounding error on the regular M5's 600. Peak torque remains unchanged at 553 lb-ft, but it's available across a fractionally broader rev range, all the way from 1800 to 5860 rpm. That means the BMW has more power than the Mercedes-AMG E63 S but less torque.
We've already recorded a blazing 2.8-second zero-to-60-mph time in the standard M5, and we were expecting our 26-pound-lighter Competition test car to match that figure, if not shave a tenth from its times.
However, the best we could manage was 3.0 seconds flat. Considering that the new car pretty much equalized that deficit by the end of the quarter-mile—tripping the lights in 11.0 seconds at 130 mph to the regular M5's 10.9 at 129—and reached 150 mph 0.6 second sooner, there's no doubting the greater herd of horses under the Competition's hood.
Instead, its tempered verve off the line was likely the result of less favorable conditions for its Pirelli P Zero PZ4 tires than we had when we tested an M5 on the identically sized Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber.
As in the stock M5, the Competition's all-wheel-drive system gives a sense of on-power security that no previous generation of M5 could approach. It will tolerate full-throttle starts and being hoofed out of corners without drama or complaint.
The Competition sits on springs that are about 10 percent stiffer than those of the regular car, and the adaptive dampers have been retuned accordingly. Minor changes at the front increase suspension camber, with revised anti-roll-bar mounts firm up the front end. The engine has gained firmer mounts, and the rear axle has ball joints in place of the stock M5's rubber bushings, as well as a heftier anti-roll bar.
While the changes that divide the regular M5 from the Competition are slight, we suspect that many buyers will be tempted to pay the premium given the lack of obvious downsides in terms of refinement and everyday usability.
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