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The story of the BMW M5's lengthy and fascinating birth


Image: BMW


Off the back of the newly-released M5 CS which BMW proudly states is the fastest and most powerful M5 ever made, it is naturally of fascination to wonder about where the legacy of the iconic sports saloon stemmed from and why it is regarded as one of motoring's true highlights.


Most people with a keen interest on the M5 will probably tell you that the story began that the first proper M5 iteration- the E28 from 1984 - was conceived by the Motorsport engineers shoehorning in the 3.5 litre straight six from the M1 supercar into the 5-Series body. And that's all well and true, but the actual story of the fast 5-Series doesn't actually begin in Germany, but South Africa.



Image: BMW Group Press.


Pictured above is the ultra-rare, ultra-special predecessor to all-things M5. It's called the 530 MLE and it was a holomogation special built for the racing car to compete in the Modified Production Series in South Africa way back in 1976.


It was the German answer to the notion of 'win on Sunday, sell on Monday' and it racked up 15 consecutive wins in '76 with multiple success stories well-up until 1985.


The road car had a 3.0 litre straight six churning 177hp and had a 0-60 time of around 9 seconds. Granted, even at the time, that wasn't considered to be especially quick, but it represented BMW's early venture onto the M5 path. What followed would prove to be a lot quicker and available for the rest of the world.



Image: BMW


When the E12 generation 5-Series was facelifted, a sporty version was implemented in 1979 in the form of the M535i. It received numerous parts from the 635 CSI coupe including the its raucous 3.4 litre straight six making a far healthier 215hp. 0-60 was improved over the South African spec car with a time of just 7.4 seconds.


Only 1,650 M535is were ever made and it remained in the shadow of its later and more popular successor. Production ended in 1981 as the E28 generation 5-Series was launched.


But to understand the official birth of the M5, what must be understood first is the engine it carried.


Image: BMW


The M1 supercar had a slightly odd birth on its own before its launch in 1978; from the homologation issues to the complex situation with Lamborghini on the design and development phase, they eventually managed to produce some cars and crucially, it sported the 'M88' 3.5 litre straight six engine which was highly advanced for its time.


It was a hand-built engine which was designed for racing in order to compete against Porsche in the Group 5 championship. It was a derivative of the same engine used by BMW in the 3.0 CSL racing cars which were hugely successful earlier in the 1970s.


It was as finely engineered as it was beautiful to listen to. So, the idea of this monstrous unit ending up in a road car was cool enough, but a mid-size businessman's express? At the time, a road-going version of an engine specifically built for high-class racing that would've been the stuff of dreams.


But they did it - and did it well.



Image: BMW


The E28 M5 arrived in 1984 and the M88 engine sported the same sort of power as that of the M1. 286hp in fact, and in the mid-80s when phones were bricks and yuppies were thriving, that was an insane figure to be found in a saloon car because it wasn't far off a lot of top-end supercars of the time.


This was a sporting family saloon that had comparable performance figures to a Porsche 911 Turbo, and unless you were a complete car bore with M stripes running down your trousers, nobody could really tell that the M5 was something special. It was as subtle as it was utterly brilliant.


The rest, I'm glad to say, is history and the M5 grew up to become one of the brand's most iconic and respected models.


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