A few weeks back, the team at Drive Tribe struck gold with an E61 BMW M5 Touring that was not only surprisingly affordable but also in really good shape, and in an excellent color scheme. It goes without saying, we’re pretty jealous that we don’t have a BMWBLOG E61 M5 Touring. Despite its good condition, it still needed a bit of work, so all of that was sorted and now DT handed it over to their tamed racing driver, Ben “The Stig” Collins.
Ben Collins was The Stig back during the last several seasons of Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond, and May as hosts and now lends his racing hand to Drive Tribe every once in awhile. In this new video from DT, Collins snags the keys to the E61 M5 Touring to check it out.
The only modifications made to this car were the pair of carbon fiber air intakes from Eventuri, which help bump its dyno-tested power to 518 horsepower, up from around 507 from the factory. Those air intakes also boost the intake sound quite a bit, giving it an even more thrilling soundtrack than it already had. The only real downside to the E61’s powertrain is its SMG automated-manual gearbox, which wasn’t even liked much back in its day.
So how does the actual Stig fancy this surprisingly well-kept E61 M5 Touring? It seems like he enjoys the E61 M5 Touring quite a bit, claiming it to be the ultimate… touring car. But he has a point. The E61 M5 is superb for traveling long distances, averaging triple-digit speed, with the whole family, and all of their luggage on board (I do not recommend actually driving triple-digit speeds with your family on board). Plus, how can you not love a rear-wheel drive BMW wagon that’s powered by a naturally aspirated V10?
