GDM Motors is selling this BMW M5 at their company in Belgium. The listing says when Volkswagen took ownership of Bentley and Bugatti, CEO Ferdinand Piëch tasked Dr. Sabine (Wolfram) Willeke with developing new engines. One of the engines was a W10 producing 500 hp and 500 Nm (368 lb-ft) of torque. Since VW did not produce a vehicle capable of handling this output, they used a BMW M5 E39 with a manual transmission for testing. The listing states “Ferdinand Piëch was so satisfied with this BMW M5 with W10 engine that he used the M5 himself for his private rides.”
Update: (2025-04-03) video of the car driving
Source: GDM Motors
“Since VW did not produce a vehicle capable of handling this output, they used a BMW M5 E39”
Doubt that was the case, because at the time they made Audi A8 D2, which from 2001 to 2002 was available with 6.0 W12 making 420 hp and 550 Nm (406 lb-ft) of torque. So if they wanted, they could’ve stuffed this W10 into A8. More likely reason is that they wanted to test the engine without attracting attention. Kinda like what Jaguar did, when they put XJ220 engine into the Ford Transit van.
It’s a crying shame that no soundbites of this engine exist anywhere. Since this post I’ve been scouring the internet to no avail. Also, noticed that the price is “upon request” at GDM…I bet it’s A LOT. Here’s hoping the future purchaser is a successful YouTuber.
It is disappointing. We could not find a video of the car running. Keeping my fingers crossed someone posts one eventually.
Video of the car driving