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Powered by the back-to-back International Engine of the Year-winning engine driving through BMW’s unusual seven-speed Sequential Manual Gearbox, the new M5 Touring offers up to 1,650 litres of boot space for owners needing to move sizeable loads. With the previous M5 Touring (E34) only available in left-hand drive, the arrival of the new M5 Touring marks the first time the high-performance estate has been offered to British customers.

Powered by the same normally aspirated 5.0-litre V-10 cylinder engine as its Saloon counterpart, the new M5 Touring redlines at 8,250rpm. 507hp and 520Nm of torque propel the car from zero to 62mph in 4.8 seconds. Without the 155mph electronic limiter the new M5 Touring would be capable of achieving 200mph while still transporting the largest of loads.

This balance of ultimate practicality and performance is summed up by Lee Connolly, BMW UK’s Product Manager for the new M5 Touring “The M5 Touring will be the perfect car for delivering supercar owners’ luggage to their holiday homes in France or Spain. These levels of performance are in part made possible by the world’s first seven-speed Sequential Manual Gearbox with Drivelogic in a production car.

The gearbox features eleven different change patterns to offer the driver a personally-tuned driving experience six settings vary speed and response of gear change in a manual mode and there are five automatic modes. A Launch Control function delivers the fastest possible acceleration from standstill.

BMW M’s variable M differential also offers the highest levels of driving stability and traction, especially when accelerating out of high-speed corners, with up to 100 per cent of drive being transferred to the rear wheel with most traction. Finally, the Electronic Damper Control (EDC) system offers three suspension settings to complement the prevailing driving conditions.

Visually, the new M5 Touring follows BMW M’s philosophy of high performance shrouded in the body of a standard car with discreet styling enhancements that highlight the potential under the skin. The larger front air dam, side sills, monikered side gills and a rear valance with BMW M’s quad tailpipes protruding all hint at the performance of the world’s most dynamic estate car.

Internally the new M5 Touring features the same enhancements as the ‘standard’ 5 Series (see below) as well as offering the Active Seat bolsters from the M5 Saloon. In addition, the Touring variant comes with BMW’s innovative iDrive control system with new short cuts – eight freely programmable buttons for instant porgramme selection. Finally, music aficionados can now specify the BMW Individual High End Audio system that uses 16 loud speakers to generate an ear-ringing 825 watts. The new BMW M5 Touring starts production in March 2007.