This short film from Brightside Media gives an introduction to one of the most important BMWs of all time – the original BMW M5.
The E28 M5 was first offered for sale in 1984, it was essentially a factory-built sleeper with very little to give away the fact that it had a 282 hp engine under the hood, essentially the same power unit as the BMW M1 supercar.
BMW has a long history of building practical cars with solid gold sporting credentials, vehicles like the BMW 2002 and the E30 M3. The first M5 was perhaps the most practical of all, with four doors, seating for five adults, ample trunk space, and other amenities like air-conditioning, power steering, and power windows.
282 horsepower is a considerable amount of power in a car even today, but back in 1984 it was considered borderline obscene.
By way of comparison the Ferrari 328 offered 270 hp and the 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 offered 234 hp, of course both of these cars were lighter than the BMW four-door sedan – the 911 weighed 1,160 kg (2,557 lbs) and the 328 weighed 1,263 kg (2,784 lbs) vs the M5’s 1,410 kg (3,109 lbs).
An M5 has been created for every 5 series BMW ever since and although they’ve all been popular and frequently lauded by the press, the original E28 version will always be the rarest and most desirable.
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Above Image: The BMW E39 M5 that was used as a camera car while filming.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
