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BMW’s M division has built a special lightweight one-off version of the E60 M5 as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations for the iconic four door saloon.

Revealed this morning at BMW’s prototype workshop at the Nurburgring in Germany, the celebratory M5 is described by M division’s head of development, Albert Biermann, as “the M5 CSL we never built”.

Among the changes brought to the new car is a heavily modified version of the standard M5’s 5.0-litre V10 engine. The highly strun...Read the full article

50kg weight saving? That's barely a CSL... though the power sounds immense! I would love to see an M3 CSL again with at least 150kg stripped out of it.

I like it!, but there should never be an M5 CSL, why?, well there's never been one for starters, there's the possibilty of an M3 CSL which would invade said territory, and thirdly, why not just stick this engine in the current M5?, nobody wants a stripped M5 anyway, the cars a wild child also, no, no M5 CSL, give us an M3 CSL,Mmmm, i'm salivating already!

Given that they've stripped out the reat seats anyway, wouldn't it have made more sense to start with an M3 Coupé?

Peter Cavellini:

nobody wants a stripped M5 anyway

I'd quite like one.  There would be a market for it, if not somewhat limited.  There is something special about big saloons set up in an uncompromised fashion.  This is why the HSV specials that we don't see in the UK do so well in Australia.

TegTypeR:

I'd quite like one.  There would be a market for it, if not somewhat limited. 

But an M5 with no rear seats?  It does seem somewhat pointless to have a great big saloon with a gaping hole where the rear seats used to be.  They should take another leaf from HSV's big book of badass and build an M5 ute!

"Official power and torque figures have not been released but Biermann hints the output peaks at “around 580bhp and close to 400lb ft”. That’s up from 407bhp and 348lb ft with the standard M5."

 I thought if you hit the M button you had 500bhp so that only an 80 bhp increase. No doubt there people out there if this is wrong.

 How about an M3CSL with this revised V10 rather than the V8?

disco.stu:

But an M5 with no rear seats?  It does seem somewhat pointless to have a great big saloon with a gaping hole where the rear seats used to be. 

M6 CSL anybody... I wouldn't mind one.

407bhp and 348lbft should be 507bhp and 384lbft.

0-100km/h is not 4.1secs as standard but 4.7 secs

 It would probably be first ever  4dr saloon with no rear seats

20 seconds faster round the ring than a standard M5?, they could have gone 30 seconds quicker if they'd given it to Sabine!

Minging Martini-esque graphics scheme though. Never go back to the past, unless it's a good bit of the past.