BMW released a fresh teaser promo video for the upcoming M5. Sadly the camouflage is still on there, but we can see a few details like the four tailpipes and a great view of the front interior. The drivers speak German so for our non-German readers, we’ve translated their speech for you.
“Needless to say,” says the first guy “we have to consider different driving and outside climatic conditions, therefore we have to test-drive our cars in the whole world, starting with South Africa, in France, Sweden and on the Nurburgring.”
The reason that auto manufacturers enjoy testing in Mzansi is that we have a very high but drivable altitude in areas like Gauteng and Mpumalanga. This is good for testing performance. We also have Upington, which offers them very hot, dry conditions with long isolated roads where they can really open up the cars’ engines.
In the snow segment the man says:
“Snow is a driving condition, where you have to react very sensitive, where the driving systems must be very well inter-coordinated. If one system doesn’t fit perfectly to the other one, there will be a problem, and you wouldn’t be able to optimally take the vehicle to its limits.
An actually very simple exercise is stop-starting on a mountain slope. But here you can show the complexitiy of the different management systems very well.
I am standing with my right foot on the brake, at the moment, when I move over to the accelerator, the DSC regulating system must continue maintaining brake pressure, until the engine takes over smoothly on acceleration, to prevent rolling backwards.”
He continues:
“Winter-testing is mainly about starting and driving cold cars, that were left overnight outside, somewhere up the mountain. They are cold right through. In the morning we’ll do a cold-start, while the computer is registering all the data. Then driving, cold pull-off, cold up- and downhill driving. All this is done to optimally get the engine application right.”
“Ok, pushing the start button – and start. Super. Rpm is great, the vibrations are not perfect yet, but we are still in the application phase after all.”
The M5 will release this year and we hope to see it at the Johannesburg International Motor Show (JIMS) 2011 in October.
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