What's the news?
BMW has released details of the new M5 Competition Edition. It's more powerful than ever, faster, has its own look inside and out and is limited to just 200 examples worldwide.
Exterior
It's all a bit monochrome on the exterior, but we're not complaining. Half of the cars will be painted Carbon Black metallic, while the other 100 will be Mineral White metallic. The 20-inch forged and polished alloy wheels (on mixed tyres: 265/35 ZR20 at the front, 295/30 ZR20 at the rear) have a Jet Black finish, while a carbon diffuser, boot lid gurney spoiler and mirror caps have been raided from the M Performance catalogue. Finally, there's 'M5 Competition' lettering in the side gills and a gloss black finish for the kidney grilles up front.
Interior
Inside, there's the requisite carbon fibre build number plaque, special floor mats, 'M multifunctional seats' and Merino Black full leather trim with contrast stitching in Opal White. The M5 logo is picked out in white on the headrests too. Standard equipment includes a 1,200-watt Bang & Olufsen High End Surround Sound System, BMW Head-Up Display and Comfort Access.
Mechanicals
Tweaks to the twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 engine, including an increase in turbo boost pressure, mean increases of 40hp and 20Nm over the standard BMW M5, taking the maximums for the Competition Edition to 600hp and 700Nm. As before, that's all channelled via the M dual-clutch transmission to the Active M differential and rear wheels. BMW quotes a 0-100km/h time of just 3.9 seconds.
The Competition Edition, somewhat confusingly, comes as standard with the Competition Package available previously. It includes a ride height dropped by 10mm, firmer springs, dampers and anti-roll bars and tweaked software for the power steering, rear differential and DSC (Dynamic Stability Control).
Anything else?
It's expected that the Competition Edition will be the last iteration of the 'F10' generation M5 before the all-new 5 Series is revealed in a few months' time. Rumours persist that BMW M will offer xDrive four-wheel drive on the next generation M5 so could this be your last chance to buy a rear-drive version? We don't yet have an Irish price or indeed right-hand drive availability for the Competition Edition.