First Drive: BMW M5 and M6 Competition Package

The price is high for the horsepower, but worth it for the extras. Do you like `it ?

By Michael Frank September 20, 2013 / Photos by BMW

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<figure> </figure>Slideshow: 2014 BMW M5 Competition Package
Slideshow: 2014 BMW M6 Competition Package

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<!-- /ams_roa_content_well --> Here’s a good problem to have. Your 2013 M5 or M6 has 560 hp. Sounds reasonably adequate, yes? But now you hear that the 2014 $6,000 Competition Package bumps the turbocharged V8s to 575 hp. Ouch. It’s definitely time to go crying in your foie gras.
Or not.
The power boost amounts to a mere 2.6 percent, the better for bragging rights against the likes of RS Audis and AMG Benzes, but on power alone, the C.P. designation is a barely-there bump that amounts to a paltry .2 seconds in the race to 124 mph, and .1 second to 62mph. When these Ms could already sprint to 60 mph in superbike-like sub-four seconds, adding 15 hp was akin to the seventh beer at the already drunken-binge tailgating party.
Not that I’m strolling away from the Competition Package bar saying “no thanks,” however. If you look beyond the horsepower headliner, the rest of the equation adds up nicely.
Better Steering
Among the baubles buried in the C.P. fine print, you’ll find what BMW officially calls a “recalibration” of the rack-and-pinion steering. In particular, BMW engineers were after more sensitivity during very heavy cornering. And I’d say they nailed it, with some qualification. I tested the M6 with several triple-digit sprints through a 90-degree country lane apex. I threw every setting into Sport Plus mode and clicked DSC to M Dynamic Mode, which leads to less intervention. On these blasts steering feel was more precise, better weighted, and more cleanly calibrated. I tried a similar set of blasts in the M5 two days earlier, and at 90-110 mph, likewise, found similar results.
In both cars, Sport Plus adds a great deal of effort as well. It’s too heavy for everyday driving, so you’re bound to opt for Sport or even Comfort modes, and there you loose the sensitivity you’re after. Naturally this leads to the head-scratcher—can’t they increase feel without making effort so directly race-focused?


<figure class="center"> <figcaption>BMW</figcaption></figure> After chatting up one engineer on this subject, who veiled his answer with many qualifications, the simple answer is yes. It’s also clear that BMW has heard this critique before, and that you’ll see future changes, too.
Or, to put it bluntly, BMW, like other automakers, is starting to see a market for incremental and very subjective tweaks. You want your 3 Series with an “M” steering package? Sign (and pay) here. That may be heartless, but it’s no different (and far more substantive) than paying extra for a giant wing that doesn’t do anything but rack up points on your insurance.
Lower, and Stiffer
In addition to the tauter steering, the C.P. drops both cars by 10 mm, and both also adds a stiffer suspension: shocks, springs, stabilizer bars, and front axle bushings are all stiffer. The interesting effect here is that the M5 managed to feel relaxed even in Sport Plus mode on country lanes as well as state four-laners, but the M6 rode a little more harshly. The M6 still had a decidedly sports-car rather than GT character once backed off to Comfort mode, and more road noise seemed to penetrate the cabin. There’s an easy explanation: The 5er has fully framed doors, while the M6 goes with rimless glass windows, which are much harder to seal for sound.


<figure class="center"> <figcaption>BMW</figcaption></figure> Regardless, if you’re after one of these cars, this is a sacrifice you’re willing to make. Both are still reasonably civilized in-town cruisers, with the added stiffness helping considerably when you have some open road to conquer. Especially noteworthy: The cars feel more athletic at the rear end, so you know just how much traction you have, when the car might be ready to set sideways, and how much leeway you have. Then again, getting that to happen requires absurd speed or dialing in far too much steering and too much throttle at the same time. Otherwise, the abundant grip of the Michelin Pilot Sport rubber simply doesn’t let go. Mostly, save for a few moments on wavy asphalt that managed to upset the suspension just a hair, the C.P. cars feel even more planted and stable than their “mere” M5 and M6 cousins.
So the limits that were very high are even higher. You’ll need a race track to find them.
Random ****les and Huzzahs
This still isn’t our favorite dual-clutch transmission. Fault mostly lies not with toggling through the seven forward gears, which happens so quickly you’re often chasing the fuel cutoff between 1-2 upshifts, but with launch control.
It requires just the right calibration of a soft brake and full throttle, and even then (and you’ve followed every step in the owner’s manual) the system can and will veto the attempt. I’ve been told this is to preserve the condition of the clutch, and I believe it, but I also think telling the owner of a car that exceeds $100,000 why he can’t engage Launch Control would be a good way to engender customer loyalty.
One tremendous upgrade that’s also tremendously costly is the $9,250 M Ceramic Brakes. To put it mildly, that’s a very expensive option. But if I had to weigh the Competition Package vs. the brakes, I’d take the brakes. They’re that good. Partly, this is because they’re so much subtler and easier to calibrate than most carbon-ceramics, which typically have all the nuance of a George Foreman right cross to the jaw. Here though, BMW’s managed the impossible: brakes that feel as easy-listening smooth as Cool Jazz (think stock 3 Series binders), but when needed, will darn near rip up tarmac if you stand on them hard at 100 mph. And I did this repeatedly, with zero fade. Track time would clearly tell me more, but so far, so very excellent.
As for kickers (that seventh beer again), I’ll happily crow about the black chrome exhaust. It not only tells the world what you paid for, but BMW yanked some of the sound-deadening from the system, so upshifts get a more visceral, scary “blaght”, and downshifts more loudly trumpet your arrival ahead of the next apex.
Or, succinctly, these M’s sound meaner, and I like that a lot.

 

Great `Vid below > Well made to show how nice this BMW is & sounds...I'd love to test drive one + own one when I win the Lotto
Check it out `if you have time to `dream

 

Space, I can honestly say a lot of your posts give me the "I wants" really really badly. I have always like the BMW's especially the M series. One of my uncles and his wife swore by them and always drove them. Everytime one drives by they just seem to catch my eye. The one positive is that an older used one is actually affordable and obtainable, and usually they are in fairly good shape as they are mostly purchased by people that can afford to properly maintain them. But when I go to Toronto or Ottawa, it seems that every few seconds you see one drive by, so they are not as elusive as they once were.

 

LoL `Ken,
Yes, I do post many super rides on the MCF, but I'm a auto dreamer & I drive everyone I post in my mind & dreams.

Rides like above give me an incentive to keep working hard toward my dream targets.

I love performance cars & coupe's. I love GM's Caddy CT-V's Coupe, but they are more expensive then the new StingRay

I do like BMW & there's many here in Florida & the one's above would be great to drive/have, but the cost is just a big dream to me.
I've driven a few of the Seniors BMW, and washed & detailed many growing `up...My beach bums friends & I wash many rides during our younger years growing `up & a few we would take in for service or just go & fill them up with fuel...(Believe it or not, we did not abuse their rides & respected them) Not that we didn't get on them, but just didn't burn the tires `off (lol)

Got to run > EnJoy & thanks for your posts/words