graham m5's new car

[Graham m5 0]

Heres the pictures of my latest baby.....

[a

ttachment=21156:756.JPG]

Oh dear having a bit of a senior moment !!! have not said anything about the car !!

Its a 2000 540i motorsport in the blue i like, one owner 78000ks full history. It comes with all the toys and has had all the usual faults done ( dash lights, cooling system etc ) so is all good

Anyone know about the dvd player thats in the boot, i cant seem to get it to work !!

Edited May 3, 2009 by Graham m5

[M3 Cab 0]

Very nice can't beat a good E39

[jordyboy2 0]

Verrry nice

[byza213 1]

nice man im a fan of the e39 motosport

[Jamez 2147483647]

seats look so comfortable, nice

[Driftit 1956]

Love it. Huge Facelift NZ new 540 fan.

As for the DVD player. Is it not for the NAV system? PM Jochren. Or post a question in the Electrical Area.

[Yuen 16]

She's a beauty Graham. What shade of blue is it and how do you like it compared to the M5?

[greenday-rulz21 4]

Beauty.

[Graham m5 0]

She's a beauty Graham. What shade of blue is it and how do you like it compared to the M5?

To be totally honest it has had some engine work done, the cats have been removed and we think it has had a chip fitted at some point, as we had it on a dyno today and it made 226kw so that is impressive.

As to comparing it to the m5 it is putting out around the same power but the 540 is faster from a standing start, it has a lot better low down power than the m5. The 540 seems a lighter car and more nimble but straight line speed you could drop the m5 down and that is where the difference is in power, the m5 will out acclerate it from 80-100 but partly thats because it is manual. overall they drive very similar as under the skin they are much the same( as are all bmw's )but this has a lot more toys to play with and it does feel slightly tighter, but saying that the m5 steering is much better, this feels heavy compared. The only annoying fault with this one is the tyre noise which is horrible it has new bridgestone potenza's fitted and they are awfull the dunlops on the m5 were much better

[BreakMyWindow 1870]

Was this on an engine dyno, or is that the calculated amount of power at the fly?

[Graham m5 0]

Was this on an engine dyno, or is that the calculated amount of power at the fly?

Hi it was an engine dyno

[BreakMyWindow 1870]

Nice power figure. And a mint example of a 540i msport.

[martyyn 2]

Im really keen to hear your thoughts on this Graham because if I 'ever' sell the touring an e34 M5 is going to be very high up on my list....as is an e39 540m

Ive just spent the weekend in a friends motorsport 540 and I love everything about it except for the steering. Compared to the steering on my touring it is very very light. So light in fact that Im not sure how comfortable I would be if I were to be pushing it through the corners.

Obviously there are the steering differences between the e39 6 cylinders and v8's but I wasnt expecting it to be so different. So do you really think the M5 was even lighter ?

Also its interesting you say the 'take off' speed is faster in the 540, my understanding was that the M5 was half a second faster than the 540, have I got that wrong or has time just taken its toll? Or is it that the torque of the v8 makes it seems just that little bit faster ?

So I will be very keen to hear how you get on in the next couple of weeks as you spend more time in the 540

As for the dyno figure, my 740 (with the M62) had sportier exhausts fitted (still with the cats, although they were defined as 'sports' cats whatever thats supposed to mean) and it dyno'd at 263rwhp which is around 300 at the engine if you take a conservative figure off due to the auto, so that pretty much matches yours.

If yours was chipped as well Id expect it to be making considerably more to be honest.

[Yuen 16]

That's good to hear Graham... have to say I'm surprised as I was half expecting you to say there is a big difference between the M5 and 540 (at least in terms of feel I would have thought they are quite different cars). Gotta say the toys in the newer cars are fun though

[Graham m5 0]

With regards to the power difference between the m5 and the 540, i have taken a lot of why the 540 seems faster because the m5 has a lot higher km's and as the k's go up on a car the engine components wear and the power decreases slowly. The m5 ran very well but i never put it on a dyno but i would expect around a 20-30% power loss from original which would put it around 250hp where as the 540 is 300hp so thats why it seems faster. What does seem strange is that the 540 at the minute is better on fuel than the m5 which has surprised me, and with regards to the steering it is definately heavier than the m5, but that could be down to these nasty tyres. As regards to the 0-100 time the m5 from new is 6.3 seconds the 540 is 6.4 but we all know that these figures are sometimes raised by the car companies from new but i am sure they are around the same. As for the driving experience i will post more when i change these tyres over