The greatest BMW M5 ever: The final

I know what you’re thinking and a very large part of me agrees. How can you compare two cars born almost 30 years apart and pronounce one of them the winner? I once asked John Surtees to name the greatest racing driver of all time and got fabulously short shrift in return. His point was that you simply cannot compare across eras where the terms of reference are so different. Therefore he refused to answer leaving me, a freelancer, a few cheap words short of a story.

But today it is me and not the late, great Grand Jean controlling the narrative, so you’re going to get a winner and make of it what you will. My only problem right now is that, like you, I have no idea which one it’s going to be. E34 or F90?

It doesn’t happen that often, because things are usually both clearer and more clear cut than this, but there have been times when only the process of turning thoughts into words via the medium of a laptop keyboard that crystallises matters sufficiently for the ultimate conclusion to be drawn. So here’s hoping that’s what happens here. If you see the term ‘horses for courses’ in the final paragraph you’ll know I’ve failed and will now be sitting in a darkened room listening to 1970s progressive rock, weeping gently to myself.

Read part one of this story

Read part two of this story