I can't drive the new M5 (but AutoWeek can)

Some might say that like Sammy Hagar's career, the M5 has already peaked. Due to BMW's insistence on a gizmo-heavy future, each M5 model, despite gaining power, seems to offer a more diluted driving experience. The new BMW M5's story, like the story of many performance cars, seems to focus on the numbers associated with the engine, because, if I may generalize, people, especially car people, love to toss numbers around. What they're tossing around with the M5: 507-hp, V10,  8250-rpm redline, 384 lb./ft., etc., ad nauseam. But although what we're dealing with here is doubtless a massively capable hunk of cylinders, the things surrounding the hunk are equally important in terms of creating a successful touring sedan. Most revealing, perhaps: AutoWeek enjoys the various features and modes of the seven-speed SMG transmission, but they'd still prefer a true manual, and find it odd that BMW wouldn't at least provide a standard stick in a box as an option. A launch control feature and other acronymic systems (DSC and EDC, for example) are available to electronically tailor the way the M5 reacts to driver input. On top of that, there's still the iDrive to overcome. And, at least to me, the styling ain't so hot, especially when compared to the E39 M5. Fortunately the car handles and brakes like a racecar with four doors, and is devoid of that active steering crap that BMW attaches to its lesser 5-Series vehicles. The new BMW M5 is estimated to run about 90 large when it comes to the United States in about a year, which, if we're lucky, should coincide with another Van Halen reunion tour.

More cowbell below.