[bm323]

It is not jusr the final conclusion that is important but the reasoning behind it, subjective though it may be. It is not that critical one car is faster by 0.1 s.

"The M5’s handling, meanwhile, couldn’t present a starker contrast with that of the CTS-V. It’s so outstanding, in fact, that even the walloping E63 isn’t ultimately in the same league as a driver’s car. It’s a brilliance you have to invest in before you can fully unearth it on the road, though – which brings us neatly to the last of those big questions we talked about earlier: complexity....

The M5 does the lot. And a car that so plainly advances its breed, setting new standards as a driver’s car as it goes, can only be a winner."


Also on the sound ... "It sounds authentic, you see – unlike the BMW (which doesn’t always have the sonic drama you might want from a super-saloon) and the Mercedes (which often has too much) when both rely too much on imitation engine noise piped in via the stereo speakers. Both the Germans have sports exhausts with ‘noisy’ modes, but neither is allowed solo billing when its V8 is at its wildest; and when there’s a 600-horsepower V8 to listen to, how daft is that? And even though the M5’s audio system engine sounds are the more contrived of the two, the E63’s end up irritating you just as much once your brain starts successfully filtering out which kind of rumble is coming from where."