Meet the limited edition BMW M5 Edition 35 Years

The BMW M5 is 35 years young in 2019. When launched it was the world’s fastest sedan; today, facing more fast-four-door competition than ever, BMW describes it as the world’s most successful high-performance sports sedan. Whichever it is, surely every driving enthusiast has a soft spot for this icon of high-performance practicality.

BMW is not about to let us forget it either. It is marking the 2019 anniversary with a limited edition 35^th special, just as it did five years ago for the M5’s 30^th. The BMW M5 Edition 35 Years is limited to 350 units and arrives in July.

After six generations of M5 in which power has risen from an original 282bhp to over 600, BMW is not about to go backwards on the power front, and so it proves. The 35 Years special is the most powerful M5 ever, with 625PS (617bhp) from its twin-turbocharged V8. That’s a small but vital step up on the 584bhp 30th anniversary car of five years ago and a match for the M5 Competition model from the current range. Like that car, the new one can hit 190mph and sprint from 0-62mph in 3.3 seconds, passing the 124mph mark in 10.8 seconds – supercar fast, in other words.

The power and performance increments these days may be small but for real M5 engineering progress look no further than efficiency. The F90 M5 35 Years has a combined fuel consumption of 27mpg, not so different from the 1984 E28 M5 which weighed around half a tonne less and needed twice the time to get from 0-60mph.

The M5 Edition 35 Years comes with the expected makeover, using M Design and BMW Individual fittings both inside and out to back up its “collector” status. The cars are finished in Frozen Dark Grey II metallic paint – said to give a silky matt look – with newly designed 20-inch M light alloy wheels in Graphite Grey. Gold coloured brake calipers are optional. There’s a flash of gold inside too: the predominantly black leather trimmed cabin is set off by the first use of a gold anodized aluminium finish for dashboard, door trim and centre console.

The effect? Shimmering apparently. Just like the M5 itself…