BMW has reworked the M5’s suspension quite extensively, adopting the shock absorbers developed for the 2020 M8 Gran Coupé, which lower the car’s ride height by 7mm, and then choosing new corresponding spring and anti-roll bar rates. . It has also considerably stiffened the engine mounts, which has the effect of stiffening the entire front structure.
What a difference it makes. Despite less apparent wheel travel in its arches, the M5 CS rolls twice as much as the M5 Competition. The comfort damping mode evokes a lot of full compliance and also a smooth and stable ride on fast B-road that banishes the memory of the often difficult, responsive and camber-sensitive feel of driving the regular M5. On smoother surfaces, Sport damping makes the M5 CS tighter and a more compound undertone on long wave entryways; but even here the vertical control of the body never seems overbearing.
The management shows a corresponding improvement. It has none of the muffled, slightly rubbery feel of the regular M5’s luggage rack and, on our test car’s Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, even filters a useful amount of contact patch felt by the driver where the old luggage rack was so unsuccessful.
And so, with a front end so much more tactile and pleasant than the regular M5s and a rear axle that feels so much better connected to the road, the M5 CS is a much more efficient driver’s car than its lesser relations. It highlights the predictability and feel that the F90 M5’s dynamic recipe has so far lacked.
It has the same versatility and adaptability as the regular M5, but it’s able to reward the driver more when you simplify their character, disengage their front driveshafts, and start to feel their limits. These limits are high but not insurmountable on the road; and so the car can be really interactive and fun at road speed which is the last thing one would expect from a modern BMW Clubsport model. It’s not hardcore, but it’s tactile and special; not particularly exaggerated or misguided and all about qualitative improvements in the driving experience rather than objectively measurable quantitative improvements.
Plus, when you get used to negotiating the car’s drive modes using the M1 and M2 quickfire shortcut buttons on the steering wheel (rather than individually adjusting a suspension setting here or steering mode there- bottom), you feel like you can make the most of it. from the car when the road ahead changes. In this respect, the M5 CS is no different from the M5 Competition or even an M3 or M4. But the way BMW has learned to make the complexity of driver-configurable systems in these cars so manageable lately is truly impressive. For us, this alone is starting to attract the appeal of cars above their rivals.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-06-15 11:21:13
