The newest entry in this lineup, an $85,000 Indianapolis-red-metallic M5, was delivered unto me recently on a gray Bay Area day, one on which I happened to need to hustle from San Francisco to Sacramento for a speaking engagement. I was a little worried about making it on time. I shouldn't have been.
For those not up on Bavarian evolution, the M5 is simply BMW's popular 5-Series sedan writ large. Outwardly, the first three generations of M5s looked the same as the lesser 5s. (The only hints of their supercar status were a tiny badge on the trunk and a pair of odd-looking air vents on the side.) Such stealthiness was by design: Though they resembled sedate city runabouts, these pre-2006 M5s had enough juice - 400 horsepower - to blast the doors off almost any sedan on the market.
Full review here