Back in the day, we could purchase the E60 BMW M5 with a manual gearbox in North America. We were, however, unable to purchase an E61 BMW M5 Touring. Customers in Europe may purchase an E61 BMW M5 Touring but not an M5 with a manual gearbox. For Euro consumers, there was just SMG automatic manual gearbox, which was notoriously the worst transmission. But what if you merged both market vehicles and modified an E61 M5 Touring to a manual transmission? Find out in this new Carfection video.
Before we begin, let us congratulate Carfection on reaching 1,000,000 subscribers. I’m genuinely surprised it took this long for so many people to subscribe, given that Carfection has been producing prime-Top Gear-level content for years. Aside from that, Henry Catchpole takes the wheel of an E61 M5 Touring with a manual gearbox in this video.
Everything M3s, a UK tuning firm noted for executing manual conversions on E46 M3 CSLs, which originally had the same SMG transmission as the E61 M5, performed the change. It’s them you want executing such a complicated task on such a delicate automobile.
Everything else, however, remains the same. That implies it still has a 5.0-liter normally aspirated V10 engine with 500 horsepower and a top speed of 8,000 rpm. This one has a few more horses owing to an Eventuri carbon fiber intake system, but the enhanced intake is all about the noise. BMW’s “S85” engine has always been one of the best-sounding road vehicle engines ever, but with a carbon fiber air intake, it sounds even better. In a beautiful five-door family vehicle, it also sounds amusing.
This alteration really enables you to have everything you need in a single vehicle. It’s quick, it sounds exciting, it handles nicely, and it includes a manual transmission for driver involvement. Despite this, it seats five people comfortably and has a large, usable wagon trunk. What more could you possibly require?
