BMW E39 M5

You know those polls in the various magazines: where everyone is asked as to their favourite 'M' car?

The E39 V8 always been extremely highly regarded. Obviously for quite a few people it ticks many boxes: practical, fast, evocative engine sound, handsome, not bleeding edge modern, manual, fast.....
I've never met, heard or read anyone say that the E39 M5 was anything but one of the finest cars they had driven. How is that for a platitude?

At the time of release it was the fastest production saloon in the world. 0-60 in 4.9 seconds, the S62 4.9 litre twin DOHC engine provides prodigious levels of torque.

There was that famous 'banned' advert, that started off with the camera tracking a high speed run of a Thrust SSC-resembling vehicle in the middle of a desert. The camera is obviously keeping up with the car, until the parachute deploys and all the action slows down. Then from nowhere a hand comes to the screen to wipe it clear, and as the view pans away, we are shown the camera mounted on the wing of an E39.