BMW’s M5 Competition is arguably the quickest saloon money can buy today. Well, sorry about that Mercedes-AMG E63 S – you are also super quick, but that 0.1-second advantage of the Bimmer in the quarter-mile drag makes all the difference. Of course, that doesn’t mean the Merc is slow by any means, but that’s a topic for another discussion.
M5 Competition against the world:
Gallery: 2018 BMW M5 Competition
We’ve seen the M5 and the M5 Competition race all kinds of vehicles in different drag races. Now it’s time for the new Aston Martin Vantage V8 to try its luck and, even on paper, the two cars are quite different. Let’s start with the obvious – on the right is a comfortable Bavarian four-door saloon, while on the left we have Aston’s latest and greatest grand tourer.
Gallery: 2018 Aston Martin Vantage first drive
The differences are even bigger when we compare the performance stats of the two cars. Both have V8 engines under the bonnet, but that’s nearly everything they have in common – the M5 Competition’s 4.4-litre engine generates 617 bhp, while the 4.0-litre twin-turbo of the Vantage churns out “just” 503 bhp. In fact, in this drag race, the BMW is once again fighting a Mercedes-sourced V8, the same as the one used in the E63, but in a different power tune.
Which one wins? It’s obvious, isn’t it? The M5 Competition with its more powerful V8 engine and an AWD system compared to the Aston’s RWD layout is clearly the quicker off the line between the two contenders today. We’ve seen even better quarter-mile runs from the M5 Competition so the gap between the two should be a bit larger.