The Belgian company sells an extremely interesting BMW M5, the creation of which has an incredible background.
The BMW M5 of the E39 generation probably does not need a long introduction. The fourth generation of the performance sedan was introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1998 and very quickly gained enormous popularity. The car caught the eye not only with the great design of a classic three-room sedan, but also with the atmospheric S62 forked eight-cylinder engine, tuned to 294 kW (400 hp).
The first generation M5 with eight cylinders offered great dynamics, great sound and great handling. So it’s no wonder that the E39 is still among the most popular M5s on the market today. Customers willingly pay huge sums for nice pieces. Belgian the company GDM Motors however, it offers a car that can easily be described as truly unique among the BMW M5 E39.
This pearl was recently brought to the attention of overseas colleagues from TheDrive, who have recently been dealing with prototype of the W10 engine produced by Volkswagen. The engine was to be created as part of the development of a new series of engines with a W-shaped cylinder configuration.
From this series of engines, W8 engines (Volkswagen Passat B5.5), W12 engines (Audi A8, Volkswagen Phaeton W12, Bentley Continental Flying Spur, Bentayga and Continental) were put into production, and we cannot forget the top W16 engine, used in modern cars of the brand Bugatti.
Apparently, however, several prototypes of the engine with the configuration were also created W10, supposedly only three. The engines were supposed to be in the prototype stage, so it is not surprising that they were primarily looking for their components. But an interesting surprise awaited them. One of them even got under the hood of a car that did not have a VW logo on it.
As part of the development, the car company’s technicians decided to build a special test car for Ferdinand Piëch, the head of the Volkswagen car company at the time, who was behind the decision to develop the W8, W10, W12 and W16 engines. However, at that time there was no model in Volkswagen’s offer that could handle the power of the W10 engine.
Therefore, the VW engineers chose the BMW M5 E39 with a manual transmission, in which they replaced the V8 engine with a W10, as the optimal platform for building their new prototype. The modifications were certainly much more extensive, but unfortunately we do not have any detailed information about them. But it is important to mention that Piëch was so satisfied with the car that he also used it for his private drives.
Of course, the question arises as to how the car came into the shop’s possession. Similar prototypes usually end up in the car company’s collections, or even scrapped. However, it would not be the first time that a prototype of the automaker slipped through the fingers and made it to the public. We recently wrote about a first-generation facelifted Chevrolet Corvette prototype that had the same thing happen to it.
The installation of the W10 engine from the Volkswagen workshop in the BMW M5 is confirmed by a picture of the engine compartment. Colleagues from The Drive were able to identify that it is the same type of W10 engine, whose disassembled prototype they found on the Internet earlier. The GDM Motors advertisement then states that the engine offers a maximum power of 500 horsepower and 550 Nm of torque, which are impressive parameters. A six-speed manual transmission takes care of power transmission to the rear wheels.
Unfortunately, the ad does not mention the car’s arrival, detailed information about its condition or the price, which is only available on request. But something tells us that this unique item will change hands for a really high price. And we wouldn’t be too surprised if the offer came, for example, from a car company that rebuilt it into its current form.
2023-08-06 11:44:00
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