From: crash@hal.com (Chris Craddock)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Re: BMW Highway Patrol Car
Date: 22 Aug 92 16:03:32 GMT
Organization: HaL Computer Systems
NNTP-Posting-Host: sydney.hal.com

In article <pod.714352843@suite.sw.oz.au>, pod@suite.sw.oz.au (Paul O'Donnell) writes:
|> In <25605@dog.ee.lbl.gov> jtchew@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) writes:
|> 
|> >>the BMW M5.  It has a 5.7 Liter hand built engine 
|> 
|> >Any Bimmerphiles know what goes in the M5?  I thought it was a
|> >hotrod version of the 3.5-l straight 6 found in the 535i. I had
|> >the impression that even their V12 is only offered in a 5-liter
|> 
|> The old M5 had a hotted up 3.5l engine, the new one has a hotted
|> up 3.7l version of the same engine.  5.7l sounds bogus to me.

	You're right! No doubt at all. Its bogus.

	Only a minor nit. The "3.5" liter engine in the 535i is 3435cm^3
	The M5 engine is exactly 100cm^3 bigger - 3535cm^3 and therefore,
	its the M5 engine which is really three and a half liters. It kicks
	out 315 bhp in Euro spec, 311 in US spec. The differences between 
	the "regular" 535 and the M5 are pretty significant - an extra 100
	bhp just for openers...

	And BTW, just released in Europe - the 92 model M5 has 3.9 liters,
	bigger wheels, stiffer springs and 340 bhp - ZOWIE! I want one.
 
|> >>and would market for $65,000(US).  
|> 
|> >That sounds more like the price for a regular, civilian M5, not for
|> >some kind of "special" (see above).

	Yep, that's the sticker for US spec M5s. But you can get your hands 
	on a nice shiny new one for $50K from dealer stock. (A price to make
	the Aussies and Kiwis weep - G'day paul mate!).

|> >>It registers to 180 mph but is expected to go more.  THe
|> >>officer driving says he doubts it will be long before he is required to
|> >>determine just how much more. 
|> Again, this sounds bogus.  BMW have a voluntary agreement with Mercedes
|> and I think Audi (but notably not Porsche) to limit _all_ their road
|> cars to 250km/h.  I don't think they are the sort of company to build
|> "police specials", especially for the Americans.

	I've read lotsa road tests where the journos felt that the M5 would
	easily crack 180 if it didn't have that darn rev limiter. I'm not
	so sure (and I owned one). There is no question that it will crack
	155mph/250Kmh (when the limiter kicks in), but (a) its close to the
	redline anyway (7,200rpm) and (b) at those sorts of stratospheric 
	velocities, you have to add an awful lot of extra HP to get even a
	few mph more. I would guess it would max out at 165, maybe 170 with
	a tail wind.

|> -- 
|> Paul O'Donnell                           |So Avon, what does it feel like
|> pod@softway.sw.oz.au                     |to be a god?" (Blake)
|> Softway Pty Ltd                          |
|> Phone: +61 2 698-2322 Fax: +61 2 699-9174|"I would think you'd know." (Avon)

Cheers all
Chris
--
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