BMW M5 Pure 2016 review

Stripped back sedan still delivers on its powerful promise.

Less power and fewer features do not sound like a conventional enticement for prospective car buyers. In the case of the BMW M5 Pure, it should work.

That's just one component of the contradictory nature of this sports sedan.

By the numbers, this $185,000 weapon is the "lite" version of the BMW M5 Competition. As such it drops 11kW and 0.1sec on the run to 100km/h, dispenses with the Competition's 10mm lower ride height and upgraded adaptive damping and steering. It doesn't sound quite as menacing, either.

The Pure is also $45,900 cheaper — and on most back roads will be just as quick as its dearer sibling.

Put that down to slightly softer suspension, which does a better job of keeping the rubber in contact with the road on choppy corner exits. Yes, there's a touch more body roll but not enough to persuade many drivers to shell out the equivalent of a BMW 120i hatch for the Competition version unless they plan on doing track days.

Acceleration is brutal

If dressing to impress is your thing, the Pure won't suit. Beyond the mechanical limitations, the base M5 drops the top-shelf four-way aircon and sportier, ventilated front seats.

On the road

Long after you switch off the twin-turbo V8, there's still the whirr of the radiator fans and the metronomic tick of the front brake discs cooling. The smile will take nearly as long to fade as you savour the impressions of piloting such a momentous car.

By any standards, the M5 Pure is a quick car. Slip the drive mode into Sport and it will hold a line brilliantly, even is there is the occasional flicker of the stability control light on corner exit. For a sports sedan, the ESC seems a touch quick to intervene, though it doesn't appreciably cut power unless you ignore it and add steering lock or keep on the throttle. Step up to Sport Plus and the halo of that software constraint slips to condone light rear-end power-slides, without ever worrying the driver the car will step outside its lane.

It's nice to have millimetric-precision as to where more than 1900kg is pointed

Acceleration is brutal at 4.3 seconds for the 0-100km/h sprint and the 680Nm of torque from just 1500rpm cause it to buck like a bronco if you dump the accelerator. Gently feed the machine and everyone will enjoy the experience.

In short, if driving involves public roads, most folk should buy the M5 Pure. What little it concedes to the M5 Competition on smooth tarmac is more than compensated by a more compliant ride, both in terms of passenger comfort and dealing with lumps and bumps.

Poseurs who might consider $46K small change — and ironically, purists — will want the M5 Competition. If money wasn't an object, I would too.

The sharper steering is appreciated just as much on a public road as a track and when I'm diving into a 35km/h advisory signposted corner at a slightly elevated pace, it's nice to have millimetric-precision as to where more than 1900kg is pointed.

You don't buy an M5 for the interior. Still, the leather and carbon-fibre trimmed interior looks and feels classy (someday, someone will work out how to remove the resin coat so we can feel the weave directly).

The driving position, courtesy of the powered seat and steering wheel, takes moments to adjust and the head-up display avoids glances down when tracking at warp speeds. And this car was built to cruise (outside Australia, anyway) at phenomenal pace... reaching 200km/h takes just 13 seconds and experience in Germany tells us it will sit all day (or until the derestricted autobahn runs out) at 250km/h.

As it's based on the 5 Series, there's no shortage of space for cargo or those in the rear. The back pew elicits no complaints from my teenage duo and both appreciate the 16-speaker Harman/Kardon audio and the aircon on a 39-degree day.

In the matt white paintwork tested by CarsGuide, the M5 Pure looks just that — sweet and innocent — belied by the discreet M5 badges and quad exhausts. Less a wolf in sheep's clothing than a shark with tuna fins, it will eat you before you recognise the threat.