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BMW M5 Touring prototype review

Friday, Aug 16, 2024 12:00 AM

The M5 Touring returns after 14 years with a tub-thumping V8 PHEV drivetrain - and we've had an early first taste Dirk Hacker, vice-president and head of R&D at BMW’s M division, says he loves the winding mountain roads of North Wales, but the customs regulations his team has had to negotiate in order to get their cars here… not so much.Autocar road testers have spent decades convincing industry people like Hacker to bring their prototypes to the UK, in order to better tune them for the kinds of dynamic challenges their cars will face here. Now, post-Brexit, it seems we might just as well have been inviting them to Antarctica, such are the practical hurdles to overcome.However, when there’s a car like the Touring version of the forthcoming BMW M5 in the final stages of development, and an event like the Goodwood Festival of Speed to make a cameo appearance at, it seems they can still be convinced. So here we are, one Tuesday in early July, in the new G99-generation estate version of BMW’s newly plug-in-hybridised performance exec, with some decidedly wet, tight, bumpy and slippery North Walian ‘input’ to provide.