Sweaty Palms on the Autobahn...

The excitement starts when the engine roars to life. Even though the M5 is a limousine, it handles like a finely tuned race car....and sounds almost like a Porsche. We carefully drove to the closest autobahn, I must admit I was nervous to borrow a $100,000. car with such power. Once on the autobahn, it wasn't long before we were gliding along at 250 km/h (155 mph) in 6th gear. As with all high-performance cars made in Germany (with the notable exception of Porsche), the M5 automatically limits acceleration to 250 km/h via a chip. Of course, removing the chip makes this annoyance go away.

We were both amazed at how well the M5 handles at high speeds, it sits astoundingly secure and calm even at its highest allowed speed. If the cars we passed hadn't looked like they were going backwards, it was hard to guess the speed.

My husband turned into a rest area and handed me the keys. It was my turn! I was both eager and anxious. Sitting in the M5 drivers seat, I watched my sweaty palms clutch the steering wheel as I attempted to steady my right foot on the gas pedal. Somehow I started off. But I adjusted quickly. With the traffic and my limited courage, I only got up to 210 km/h (130 mph) - that was fast enough for me.

I focused on the pure pleasure of driving such a fine machine. We rolled back into the dealer precisely at 1:01 PM. We could only admire the M5. But even if we had $100,000. in our pocket, getting an M5 is not easy. The dealer explained that only 10,000 - 12,000 will be made in total - up to 1500 a year. We'll see how things look when the time comes to trade in our 523i in a couple years....