BMW M4 vs M5 track battle: Can you feel the extra 700kg?

While BMW’s latest M5 sits at the cutting-edge of super saloon development, it’s significantly heavier than its forebears. With help from Pirelli’s new P ZERO range — and a spicy M-car sibling — we find out how it fares on track.

717 bhp. 738 lb-ft. 0-60 mph in just 3.4 seconds… The new M5’s stats are more hypercar than high-performance saloon, that is, except for one number: 2,445 kg.  

Carrying an extra 550 kg over its predecessor, and around 700 kg more than the next quickest model in the M-car range (the M4), it’s safe to say the latest fast 5 series isn’t a dainty beast. But what impact does this added heft have on the driving experience? We joined Pirelli at Goodwood’s storied Motor Circuit in Chichester, to find out what happens when you let the G90 M5 loose.  

Ambling out the pits and rolling on Pirelli’s new high-performance summer tyre — P ZERO R — we join the start/finish straight for our first sighting lap. And, though you might wonder how much you can learn about a car (and its tyres) driving at sedate speeds while conversing with an instructor about track conditions, this initial experience is more revealing than we expect.

Of course, an M5 must be rapid, but its ability to waft and cosset during everyday duties, is just as crucial. Luckily, the new G90 model proves to be effortlessly comfortable, refined and, ultimately, just as liveable as a regular 5 Series during our brief warmup. In fact, the M5’s luxurious feel is almost 7 Series-like, and we think there are two reasons why. One: the electrification of the new hybrid powertrain means that snarling V8 blends seamlessly into the background when you’re not asking for its full thrust. And two: the new compound used in those P ZERO R tyres generates remarkably little road noise for vast 295 section rubber.

Anyway, enough of the tedious stuff, you want to know how the M5 feels when you really get the hammer down. Exiting the final chicane, we pin the accelerator and are not disappointed. Instantly, the eight-speed automatic gearbox drops three cogs and the revs soar to allow the turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 to slingshot us towards the horizon. Without even a whisper of wheelspin, the M5 hooks up and the speedo rockets past 100 mph quicker than most performance cars would accelerate through 50. So that weight doesn’t seem to have hindered straight-line speed, then… 

Such mass is far harder to disguise under heavy braking. Despite this, the M5 has little trouble shedding its prodigious pace as we dive into Madwick corner, through Fordwater, and on to St Mary’s. However, it’s the way in which this near-2.5 tonne saloon latches onto apexes, that’s most astonishing. Sure, impatience on the throttle is greeted with a progressive, but eminently controllable, four-wheel powerslide. But, if you let the M xDrive system and Pirelli’s enhanced footprint do their thing, the M5 can carry a startling amount of speed through Goodwood’s challenging turns.

So there’s no debating the new M5 can still cut it on the racetrack, but what happens when you shed 700 kg and fit some seriously racey, track-focused rubber? Handily, we got a chance to sample such a combo in the form of a Trofeo RS-shod BMW M4 Competition. Unsurprisingly, the results were profound.  

With both machine and tyre designed with a laser focus on precise, track performance, the M4 feels like a bonafide racing car in comparison with the rapid-but-refined M5. Where the big saloon circumvents the laws of physics with clever electronics, the raw M4 wearing this particularly aggressive tyre compound, feels like it was born to do hot laps at race pace.

At seemingly any speed through any corner, the M4 somehow remains welded to our chosen line. Offering a level of lateral g-force that few road cars can muster, the M4 manages to not only keep up with the far more powerful M5, but go even quicker. And no matter what we do to provoke a slide, the coupe just hunkers down and rockets towards the exit.

However, there’s more than just a lack of inertia at play here. Designed exclusively for the most hardcore super and hyper cars, Pirelli’s P ZERO TROFEO RS tyre is as close to a road-legal racing slick as money can buy. With an extreme new asymmetric tread pattern derived directly from Pirelli’s motorsport experience, the TROFEO RS allows the M4 to realise its full performance potential on a dry racetrack.  

That said, comparing a road-legal but semi-slick track tyre, to a versatile and comfortable high-performance road tyre, is a little unfair. In fact, the way in which a luxurious 2.4-tonne saloon — on road tyres — can keep pace with a sports coupe on track-focused rubber, is testament to the engineering prowess of both BMW and Pirelli.  

Which of our two ferocious M-cars would you choose put on your drive? Let us know if you were shocked by the new heavyweight M5’s performance around Goodwood.

Hero image credit: Pirelli