► BMW’s new M5 dresses up in Safety Car spec
► Set to debut at 2017 MotoGP finale in Valencia
► Heads up the Safety Car fleet for 2018 GP season
As if lobbing a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 under the bonnet of a German outside-lane-mobile wasn’t enough to earn the 5-series some extra cool points, what BMW’s created for MotoGP should do the trick.
Here’s what’s heading up the course car fleet for the 2018 season – an M5 with all the right ingredients for Safety Car Cool.
What’s different about it? Apart from the lights…
This special M5 uses the same 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 and M xDrive all-wheel-drive system as the production car, with 592bhp and 553lb ft of torque.
However, BMW’s boffins (and marketing department) have been fettling. BMW M Performance parts (which you’ll be able to put on your own M5 in time) have been thrown in, including carbon side sills, rear diffuser and spoiler, grille, side slats and mirrors and a titanium M Performance sports exhaust with carbon tips. It’s a moving upgrade catalogue, with roof lights.
6 things we learned when we took a 2018 BMW M5 prototype for a spin
Anything else, besides the contents of the M Performance brochure?
A few other add-ons, with bucket seats from the M4 GTS and a prototype front splitter design only found on this car, for now.
All of that aside, the most eye-catching aspects of the new M5 Safety Car are the things that don’t actually make it any faster (at least on paper – bright colours and flashing lights make everything faster).
There’s an LED light bar on the roof, unique cockpit panel inside, blue LED lamps at the front and flashing ‘corona rings’ in the main headlight unit.
Then there’s the BMW M paintjob, which is unlikely to be a cost option when you specify your own M5… Although there’s no harm in asking.
Read Georg Kacher’s drive of the 2015 MotoGP BMW M4 safety car here