The Corvette is the poster child for big, burly V8 noises. While I personally thing there are more muscular sounding V-8s (the Lexus LC500’s comes to mind), most people think of America’s most famous sports car when they thing of angry V-8s. BMW V-8s, while pleasant to listen to, never had the deep, violent roars that American V-8s had. Turns out, though, that your BMW V-8 might just have some of that thunderclap in it. Apparently, if you straight-pipe an E39 M5, it makes a noise that’ll force every ‘Vette owner to run home so fast they’ll tear holes in their New Balances.
Alex Kersten, host of the AutoAlex YouTube channel, and sucker for rusty old German cars, just posted a clip of an E39 M5 with a simple straight-pipe exhaust. And it’s positively nutty.
On start up, it barks to life as if it’s trying to scare you off. When it revs, it sounds like it wants physically harm you with its noise. But when you hear the throttle lift, that 4.9-liter V-8 sounds like it’s tearing the fabric of spacetime apart. I hate to use the word “epic” because it makes me sound like a 15-year-old Redditor, but it keeps coming to mind here because this M5’s noises make it feel like something grand and exciting (or terrifying) is about to happen.
What’s odd to me is that it doesn’t sound like just a louder version of a typical BMW V-8. It sounds … American. It’s deep and burbly, almost all the way through the rev range. It doesn’t seem to have that metallic wail that most Bimmers have. I’m not complaining, it’s just odd.
This sound won’t be for everyone. After all, M5s are supposed to be sleepers, cars that look and sound unassuming but have the goods to beat sports cars in redlight drag races. The E39 M5 will never be a sleeper with an exhaust noise like that. Instead, it shouts at everyone within earshot that it’s coming and it’s angry.
