The M5 Lineage: Six Generations, One Idea

The premise has never moved: take the executive sedan, fit the engine from the sports car, and tell nobody. Everything else about the M5 has been renegotiated every generation.

E28: the prototype

Hand-assembled, M1-derived S38 under the bonnet, and no badging worth mentioning. Around 2,200 built. It set the template and remains the purest expression of it.

E34: the industrial one

Turbine wheels, 3.6 then 3.8 litres, and still largely built by hand. The estate version is the enthusiast's answer to a question nobody at BMW wanted asked.

E39: the peak

Naturally aspirated V8, six-speed manual, restrained bodywork. Twenty-five years of consensus is hard to argue with.

E60: the experiment

A 5.0-litre V10 revving to 8,250 rpm with an SMG gearbox nobody asked for. Brilliant and brittle in equal measure.

F10 and F90: the modern era

Twin turbos, then all-wheel drive. Enormously capable, more insulated, and quicker across any road than everything above combined. Whether that is progress depends on what you wanted from an M5 in the first place.