A German tuning outfit called PP-Performance has put the 2012 BMW M5 on a Maha dyno, and the numbers returned were 444 horsepower at the wheel, 553 at the engine, and a "corrected number" of 574 hp. Max torque came in at 532 pound-feet (721 Newton/meters).
Compare those figures to the official numbers of 560 horses and 502 lb-ft. If the 444 number is accurate, then no matter how you slice it on horsepower – whether you use the numbers from BMW or PP-P's figures – you're losing around 20 percent from the engine to the wheels. However, adjusting for driveline and twin-turbo losses, that puts things right about where they should be. The 30-lb-ft surplus of torque, on the other hand, is the kind of surplus no one would complain about – again, assuming it's accurate.
Follow the jump for video of the dyno run, and for another vid of the M5 being taken to 293 km/hr (182 mph). And with that second vid, try to ignore the fact that the terminal velocity attempt is being conducted on an engine with just 40 kilometers on it...
Compare those figures to the official numbers of 560 horses and 502 lb-ft. If the 444 number is accurate, then no matter how you slice it on horsepower – whether you use the numbers from BMW or PP-P's figures – you're losing around 20 percent from the engine to the wheels. However, adjusting for driveline and twin-turbo losses, that puts things right about where they should be. The 30-lb-ft surplus of torque, on the other hand, is the kind of surplus no one would complain about – again, assuming it's accurate.
Follow the jump for video of the dyno run, and for another vid of the M5 being taken to 293 km/hr (182 mph). And with that second vid, try to ignore the fact that the terminal velocity attempt is being conducted on an engine with just 40 kilometers on it...
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