Even by the wild standards of today’s speed machines, the BMW M5 isn’t exactly lacking in terms of power or performance. After all, the M5 is a 600-plus horsepower super-sedan that can crack off 0-60-mph runs in three seconds flat or less and tearing through turns with ferocity that would make supercars of just a few years back feel insecure.
But the automotive world is a never-ending arms race, where carmakers need to constantly develop newer, superior products or fall behind and die. So while nobody might need a quicker, more potent M5…that’s not gonna keep BMW from building one.
The new BMW M5 CS, as it’ll be called — as with the M2 CS and M4 CS, the letters stand for “Competition Sport” — was recently confirmed, of all places, on BMW M’s Instagram account via BMW M head honcho Markus Flasch, who pulled back the curtain for a glimpse of the new super-sedan in an Instagram Story. The twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8’s output climbs to 626 horsepower, a slight increase over the M5 Competition’s 617 ponies — but it’ll likely feel like a bigger boost than that, thanks to a claimed 144-pound weight reduction.
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There’s no silver weight loss bullet here; rather, BMW M shaved pounds by replacing existing parts with lighter versions. The hood is a new carbon-fiber unit, while the aggro carbon-fiber-framed seats from the new M3 and M4 also make their way to the interior; in addition, the rear seat loses its token middle spot, reducing passenger capacity to four.
Carbon-ceramic brakes boasting proud red calipers will also come standard, to help the M5 CS dominate in the track environments where it should excel, strange as the idea of a track-oriented sedan might seem. Yellow daytime running lights evoke those of race cars, while the alloy rims boast a goldish tint that reminds us of a more subtle version of the ones seen on Subaru STis.
Pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, but expect it to cost a pretty penny over the $111,100 you’ll need to fork over for a 2021 M5 with the Competition package (which went from being a separate sub-model to an option package for the ’21 model year). We should learn more when it makes a formal debut, expected later this month.