A few thoughts on the comparos:

1. Both cars are great and very close performance wise. Hence, we see see-saw battles with one car winning one test and another winning another test or drag race.
2. I think the C&D test may have an error on the Octane issue. I saw a M5 on the floor of a local dealer and its said 91 Octane min (93 Ron I think) on the inside of the fuel door.
3. Typically, if you put higher Octane in a stock car than the Octane for which it was factory tuned, the car does not have higher performance. It may have extra protection against detonation under heat and loads (knock, etc.), but not more power. You need the car tuned for more power. So putting 93 in a OEM 91 car should not provide more power.
4. If anyone is getting detonation/knock (and timing retard) on their OEM car with OEM-specified fuel, then they should take the car to the dealer for a check.
5. Looking forward to how the 2 cars do on a road course. Many say that "AMG cars have good power but cannot corner, etc." BMW fans believe that the M5 will clock (smash) the E63s on the road course. I am not so sure. I think that will all of the F1 and sportscar racing and development Mercedes has done, design and honing of the GTR, etc., that AMG and Mercedes have come a long way. BMW is actually the company which does not currently have a true sportscar!

 

The perf stats when stock seem to go back and forth depending on who you ask so I'm gonna hedge my bets and say they're incredibly close across various straight-line performance tests. In the handling department, I liked my F10 M5s a lot but loved my F06 M6 GCs--the latter managed to shed its weight around the corners, it was predictable and you knew when it was about to let go. In my opinion and after 2-3 weeks of driving it, the E63 handles brilliantly... I don't understand why some of the reviews say otherwise... c'est la vie. My only observation is--having now experienced it letting go--I didn't know it was about to. Perhaps more time with the car will attune my senses/handling observations to this car's behaviors but the weather's preventing me from exploring that further right now.

On the topic of fuel octane, I'm told (believe it or don't since I have no data to question/support the comments yet) that this new engine will detect fuel octane and adjust itself accordingly. I'd presume that operates within some predefined bounds, i.e. it can manage to take advantage of perhaps 94 octane RON but no more. The impression the tuner gave me--because he asked me what fuel was available both at the pump and at the track--was that he can tweak the tune for the lower and upper bounds. Here in WA, we run on 92 pump and I can readily obtain 100 at the track--104's not so readily accessible. Those are the numbers I provided to EuroCharged but, so far, I can do nothing to prove my theory out.

Tuned, though, this car's easily a sub-3-second 0-60 mph (likely a 2.7 or 2.8 per my current tune and given proper traction) and I'm reasonably confident she'll get into the mid-high 10s in the 1/4 mile. I've no idea if tunes exist yet for the new M5 (or even if the older ones like the Burger JB units or ECU tunes remain compatible) so no data to compare on that front either.

 

Interesting. When it let go, which end went? What were the circumstances and how was recovery?

Here's a short video of part of a drive up Palomar mountain the weekend before last. Not Ronin-esque by any means. Not sure what the clicking was in the audio but I think it might have been GoPro mount related.

I'm really pleased so far with the handling of the car, and frankly am surprised at just how hard it does corner. I was for the most part being conservative as this is only the second trip to the mountain in the car and that's not the place to be pushing the limits. Still, would have been interesting to have had the camera placed where I could record the G meter to see just how hard it was turning. Very much looking forward the AMG Academy to push the limits more in a safe environment.

As this is my first real sports sedan and I didn't have any allegiance to the Mercedes brand going in, if my purchase would have been the 2019 MY versus 2018, I would have given the BMW serious consideration. But last year, the lack of all wheel drive was a show stopper.

I'm sure I'd be equally thrilled to be driving the new BMW right now, but as it is, I'm super happy with the choice I made.

 

Nice! Oh how I envy your mountain roads... and road temperature, and climate, vicinity to the beach, percentage of sunny days, scenery, vicinity to Disney... but your gas, your gas prices, your earthquakes, your housing market... yeah, that all sucks... now I feel much better about myself.... hahaha. // sorry about the rambling

It's possibly the difference in our respective tire temps and resulting traction but she lost it repeatedly in unpredictable front-end plough--rarely did the car lose it under any other circumstance aided greatly by the 4WD no doubt. This is a fairly typical characteristic, I've found, of super-sedans... likely attributable to the sheer weight and momentum catching up to the front tires so to speak. Beyond this, agreed--the car handles like it shouldn't be able to. The tires themselves are also top-notch--thank you, AMG, for not skimping out on the stock rubber (@Audi you cheapskates #$@&*#@#$*&%#@!).

 

 

Ya gotta love the power cord G meter..

 

What I cannot get over is how fast both of these cars are! In the same Car and Driver issue, they tested a Porsche GT2 i think - the E63/M5 were quicker than both!

 

 

 

I will be bringing mine to the YouTube call-out at the end of this month. Maybe I can get a race in against an M5. Any other cars people would like to see pitted up against me? I want to take on the new Vette

 

Interesting. Looks like a race from a roll and difficult to access if they both started at the same time. If that's the case then strike this one for BMW.

 

 

M5 gets a much better launch

 

E63 was at a 100lbs disadvantage since the driver was the fat one out of the two.

 

Or jumped.

Or E63s Driver User Error

Cars are very close, and winner usually driver dependent.

 

I'm not a drag racer but the E63s driver was slow to react at the start... But who buys these cars to drive straight ?
Oh yeah if ya did you are an idiot in my opinion...

 

Sorry I'm guilty. Sometimes if I find a straight road ahead of me with no one on it, I will check to make sure my laser shifters are working, put it in Sport plus and drive straight like a bat out of hell.

 

 

You are right, they are very efficient four door sports cars meant to be driven in the twisties...
If you think these cars are "race" cars you are an idiot..

Only a fool would care about his "times" on the road ...

 

I've not watched this video yet so I'm posting blind; these guys are usually objective and detailed in their reviews so hopefully informative at the least.


// EDIT: now I've watched it... chumps; hehehehe. Joking aside, though--there are so many points they made with which I disagree. I guess I need to drive the M5 but I just can't seem to get past the "booooooooooooooooring" aspect.

 

 

I liked that last review - it is great to see how close both cars are. I has just become a taste preference, which means the competition is forcing both car makers to produce the best cars possible. For F10 vs. W212, AMG had the upper hand with awd. The one thing that is interesting is that the F90 M5 engine seems to be just an evolution of the previous engine, which makes me wonder how long it will be around. Most manufactures are going to 4.0 liters for 8 cylinders, BMW is sure to follow sooner or later.

 

 

I fell asleep during that review, lol