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BMW's super saloon recipe has come a long way since the original E28 M5
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In this series we'll be visiting four very different circuits in the UK
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all of them Evo favorites and home to our track day and evening events
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Should be fun, so let's get cracking. The Bedford Autodrome is EVO's home circuit and we hold lots of track days here
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Not just because our offices are over there, but because it's a great place to learn on
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Mainly because there's loads of space to play with, which is just what you need when you're
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trying to get to grips with a beastie like this M5 competition
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As I say, it is a really good circuit to learn the craft is Bedford
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I'm still in four-wheel drive and I've got the M dynamic mode setting on with the diff
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Which it just allows a little bit of slip and a little bit of slide like that
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But it will catch it for you eventually But you do have to be very kind of calm and delicate with everything you do Even on a track like this when there lots of space to play with because it will just slide around like that
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But that's because this car has such a phenomenal amount of not just power, but torque
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750 Newton metres of torque, along with 625 horsepower. It's just bonkers how rapid and potent this thing feels
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But we didn't go to Bedford just to see what the M5 would be like
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with its clever electronics all switched on. This time, we switched them off
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Why? Because you can. Let's have some proper fun. Let's do what you can't do on the road
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but you can do at a track like this. and that's that kind of thing
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it will just do it forever brilliant, absolutely brilliant alright this is second gear
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and I'm just up to third still doing it up to fourth
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and it's still doing it loopy soup absolute loopy soup it does that so fast but this surface is particularly slippery and it not very warm today either The lap at Bedford is anti which is pretty unusual
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And the layout on this West Circuit is properly challenging, especially when the surface is damp
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So even though there's an abundance of runoff areas, sometimes you need all the space you can get
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And remember, the kerbs themselves are often the most slippery bits of all when it's wet
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It's quite edgy when you want to take the lock off. So you've got to get the lock on quite fast
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But when it wants to come back, it comes back really quite quickly, quite aggressively
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So you have got to be ready with you. ready to take the lock off almost faster than you have to put it on
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Otherwise, you get a bit of a yours, mine, yours, mine situation going on
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And that's when you get spat off in a direction that you weren't expecting at all
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It's not as neat doing the big sideways stuff as some BMW M cars
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but that's just because these, even when you unhook the front axle
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and you've just got the rear axle doing its thing, so it's just rear-wheel drive
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The way the diff comes in and out, it's quite aggressive, more aggressive than some other
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M cars. So it's kind of slightly spiky in the amount of grip it has and the amount of
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traction and the ease with which it will break traction like that
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I mean that just nuts Absolutely nuts There no way you drive it like this on a on a kind of regular regular track or track day because you just get a red flag told to go home immediately
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and have a word with yourself but that's the beauty of this place all this space to play with
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theoretically nothing to hit it's just cracking it really is i love the fact
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that you can be sat here in your 625 horsepower and Vive competition
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with four-wheel drive, with all the safety systems switched on, and then you can come to a place like this and you can go bonk, bonk, bonk
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select a couple of different settings within the M menu and turn it into a total sideways hot rod
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It's kind of cool that you can do that, isn't it, really? With its clever electronics switched on and tuned to suit whatever conditions you might find on a track day at Bedford
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the M5 Competition is a massively fast and extremely efficient car. It's fun, but also incredibly secure
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And even when you switch those electronics off, it still has a lovely, natural sense of balance
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one that allows you to exploit its prodigious power and torque without too much fear of getting bitten
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just as all M5s have had since the very beginning either way and in whatever settings you choose
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the M5 competition suited our home circuit down to the ground so until next time
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cheers for watching and stay safe
