The G-Power Hurricane RS Touring might be stuffed full of quilted velvet, yet it's anything but soft. In fact, it's the world's fastest estate car.
G-Power, the German tuner of all things Bavarian (well, just BMWs really) has turned its attention to the outgoing M5 Touring.
That attention has resulted in 740bhp at 7,500rpm (up 240bhp), 553lb.ft at 5,000rpm (up 170lb.ft) and a 0-62mph time of 4.5 seconds. The 0-124mph benchmark is reached in an astonishing 9.7 seconds, and top speed is limited to 224mph. LIMITED?!
Power comes courtesy of twin-supercharging the standard 5.0-litre V10; it's the same engine that, in the four-door version of this car, took the saloon world speed record in 2008 with a 228mph run. G-Power then broke its own record with the Hurricane RR, at 231mph.
And as there's been no faster estate since the 2008 run, this takes the crown.
Making the BMW M5 that fast isn't a simple task, as you'll imagine. Each cylinder bank gets its own supercharger and there's a new twin-scroll intercooler, painted orange, characteristically. The standard con rods and pistons of the M5 can't cope, funnily enough, so G-Power replaces them, and it re-maps the ECU.
The brakes and tyres are upgraded, with 396mm perforated discs sitting inside the lightweight 20-inch front rims, and 380mm discs in the back. Buyers can specify carbon ceramic items if they please. The fully bespoke coil-over suspension gets nine-way compression and rebound adjustability.
Inside... well, you can see. Quilted orange is king, mostly diamond stitched and layered onto pretty much every visible surface.
So you're probably wondering what this über M5 Touring costs, and perhaps expecting a mildly disappointing 'if you have to ask' sort of answer. Well, disengage your cynicism, for G-Power has priced it down to the last fraction of a Euro: €242,016.80.
In British money, on this very day, Tuesday 22 February 2011, and according to the experts on the internet, that equates to a princely £203,960.14. Well, if you have to ask...
Mark Nichol - 22 Feb 2011
