Video: 2018 BMW M5 prototype review

BMW's revered Motorsport Division will take the momentous step of switching its forty-year-old super saloon icon, the M5, from two driven wheels to four- when the sixth-generation version of the car goes on sale in 2018. But the German car-maker insists that its new 'M xDrive' four-wheel-drive system makes the new M5 even more spectacular to drive than any of its famous antecedents.

In order to prove the substance of that claim, BMW let us loose in an early prototype version of the M5 at its Miramas proving ground in southern France - and also provided former F1 driver and current BMW DTM touring car ace Timo Glock for passenger-seat insight and added amusement. Chief tester Matt Saunders was the man next to him with 615bhp under his right foot.

Click here for the web review of the 2017 BMW M5 prototype