By Clive Funziwe

When you hear that a car sprints from 0 to 100km/h in 3.3 seconds, you know its fast, very fast. One would also be forgiven in assuming that such speeds are not found in a car that can give you comfort and sensibility in spades. Welcome to the BMW M5 Competition that doesn’t need the kitchen sink because it has something better.

Brute power

That thing is a 4.4-litre turbocharged V8 that pushes out 460kW/750Nm bolted to an 8-Speed automatic gearbox, which is kept tidy by BMW xDrive system to make sure that only your passengers need adult diapers. It is diabolic how quick the M5 is. At any given point, you’re less than 3 seconds away from reaching speeds that will land you up in jail and this is made worse by how it hides its speed. Acceleration is visceral but speeds are carried with plushness, comfort and serenity and this brings us to the beauty that is the M5 Competition.

Luxurious performance business saloon

As a package, you really get everything. Luxury, bespoke materials with top-drawer workmanship, the latest tech, an insulated cabin, blistering performance and an enjoyable drive or ride as a passenger. Yes, the starting price is R2,307,800 – but it offers comparative value that makes one wonder why you need a sports car, but before we get carried away by referencing a sports car – lets clear things up a little bit.

The drive

While the M5 Comp offers sports car performance and arguably the handling, it won’t give you sports car agility, like how a Porsche Panamera feels to use one of the better benchmark references. It is also not as raw as something like an E63s which can be borderline too raw as a daily. This then makes the M5 the perfect in-betweener that will not leave you feeling shortchanged in how it performs.

The mechanical and software technologies are exemplary. The 4-wheel drive system (xDrive) is rear-wheel biased and can also be configured as a rear wheel for when you need to power slide into a business meeting. Inside, you get an M-Specific instrument cluster and a plethora of driver aids like a radar guided cruise control, pre-collision brake assist, rear cross traffic alert, park distance control, blind spot monitoring, hill assist control, lane keeping system with lane departure alert and steering control. Our test unit was specified with an optional 16 speaker active B&W sound system, and has as standard, the now ubiquitous Apple CarPlay and Android Auto plus wireless charging.

All in all, this is a hard package to beat and in our view, it keeps the BMW M5 Competition as one of the better buys in the category. It is simply, sublime.