The technical specs make for some entertaining reading. Under the hood is BMW’s highest performing engine, a 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 that’s good for 600 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque. Maximum power arrives early, at 1,800 rpm, and then runs all the way through to 5,600 rpm. It sounds pretty damn good while it does it, too. Numbers like those put the M5 right on par with its German competition.

3.4 seconds), but that result depends on a number of variables. Take, for instance, Estoril Raceway, where the BMW M division handed me the keys and told me to put the sports sedan through its paces. There, the road surface is super-sticky, Frank van Meel, CEO of BMW M, explained to me, and that means it’s easily possible to drop the time by a tenth of a second or more. A high-revving, high-power engine requires the right transmission and, according to the BMW engineers, the ZF-built, eight-speed torque-convertor, automatic, the sequential gearbox is the best for the task.

It replaces the outgoing dual-clutch transmission (DCT) but promises to shift just as fast. Indeed, on or off the track, this M Steptronic 8-speed drops gears like they’re going out of style, regardless of the driving mode you’ve selected. Since it’s a BMW, and since its an M car, there are some tricks along the way.

I particularly liked being able to quickly select how fast the gears shift via the gear lever. BMW measures it in bars, of which there are three. The engineers may have decided the second bar was more than enough for the track, but I found that ticking the lever up to the third bar was much more rewarding for Estoril.

There’s an uphill, hairpin left-hand-chicane toward the end of the track, right before the long straight, where you truly feel the value of putting the transmission into its highest performance setting. If, though, you’re hoping for a manual version I’m afraid you’re out of luck. For the purists that may be a deal-breaker, but trust me, this 8-speed auto is faster, smoother, and slicker than you’ll ever be. If the twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter “hot-V” V8 is the heart and soul of the M5, then the M xDrive is the central nervous system.

BMW’s all-wheel-drive system packs M-specific software tuned for the car’s powertrain and driving dynamics specifically, with five different settings that can be picked by the driver and optionally saved to the quick-mode select keys. Going through the wealth of settings BMW offers can be a little overwhelming at first when you’re confronted with which damper settings to use, or steering stiffness, or drivetrain mapping.

Spend a little time behind the wheel, though, and any of those initial doubts will soon evaporate. Helping there is how easy BMW makes it define the M1 and M2 settings, which encourages tweaking. There’s another option, though, even if it’s really only intended for those who know what they’re doing.

The 2018 M5 may be an all-wheel-drive car, but you can force the powertrain to diver all - and I do mean all - of its grunt to the rear wheels. Essentially you’re turning the M5 into a rear-wheel drive, 4-door sports car, which is something I know will be music to the ears of long-time BMW enthusiasts.

Rest assured, this is a true RWD experience. I hopped in the front seat of the M5 with track pace driver Bruno Spengler, to get a first-hand experience of what the car can do at the whim of a professional driver. Sure enough, we proceeded to drift from corner to corner. The M5 really is a car of two distinct styles: at one point, when Bruno instructed the rest of the drivers to switch over to M2 drive mode which had been set to AWD, he himself demurred. I’m seriously glad BMW offers the choice.

Six hundred horsepower is a whole lot of power when it’s only going to the rear, as I discovered myself in my own playtime with RWD mode. While you might not expect it - and I certainly didn’t from the haze of smoke still left from Spengler’s efforts - the car actually handles well, just as long as you’re fairly responsible and don’t drive beyond your abilities.