The German automaker has been working hard for sometime now on the design of the new M5, and is now in the final stages of testing. It is all well and good giving the car more power to play with, but you need to make certain that all four of those 20-inch wheels can stay on the grey stuff.

The previous version used the 507hp V10 power unit, this year BMW decided to go with an F1 kind of approach and dropped it to a V8. However, not one to compromise on power those clever German’s decided to install a twin-turbocharger in there for good measure. The end result is 552 horsepower and an increased torque of 383 pound-feet to 501 lb-ft, which is much more than the previous model.

We are not certain of its top speed yet – although it will be limited in most countries. However, 0-60 time will be the same for all, and that is 4.4 seconds – not bad when you consider that it is not the lightest kid on the block. So what about the cost, well F10 Forums suggests that it will be around the €100,000 on its home soil, but we do not believe that the $144,000 conversation will stick in the U.S. One would expect this to be a little lower, if they have any hope of competing with those muscles cars that is.

The video shows the M5 being driving during a winter testing session by different engineers and test drivers. According to an article over at Gmotors.co.uk by Andrew Baker they unfortunately talk about the car in German, so unless you understand the language you won’t know what they are saying.

The M5 has been a great offering from BMW for many generations, and this version will have a spiced up 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 which produces up to 580 horsepower. It also has a M-DCT dual-clutch transmission, rear-wheel drive, and the usual host of M model improvments.

Check the video out for yourself below.

Frank Filipponio from AutoBlog thought that he would give us a little history lesson of the BMW M5 E60, as a fitting tribute to the king. In the five years that the sedan has been available the car has sold 20,548 units – beating the previous version of the car.

The E60 version came with a 5.0-liter V10 engine offering 507hp in return, the acceleration was said to be phenomenal along with the handling. BMW hope that the F10 version will be every bit as good, if not better than the retiring model, but it has some big tires to fill.

The new F10 4.4-liter V8 version will produce 560hp, so performance should be even better. BMW has something very clever up its sleeve to help sell more units of this version – a cheaper price tag. For more details visit AutoBlog via the link above.

However, to keep our dreams alive Nowack Motors has stepped up to give the big normally aspirated lump a final farewell. Oliver Nowack has retuned the engine and dedicated it to his father Hans. By adding a new set of intake air collectors, a re-flashed ECU and a bit of massaging to the engine components, Nowack has produced the N635S 5.8 Hans Nowack Edition.

These modifications see the standard M5′s horsepower increase from a more than ample 507, to an absolutely incredible 708 hp, and yes you did read it right 708 hp ! To make it even more exciting, all the modifications are able to be retrofitted to any M5 and even the M6.

With this sort of power could this be the ultimate M5 ? To read more about this incredible car and to see the full press release check out Autoblog.

Source: Nowack Motors via World Car Fans