On the uber-sedan side of the automotive world there’s no better performance model than the Mercedes-AMG E63 S right now. The beast from Affalterbach is basically a land rocket and I’m not using that term lightly. The Audi engineers are working on the new RS6 but most likely the new version will still be made in Avant guise aka Sport Wagon. Therefore, there’s only one car that could challenge the beast from Stuttgart and that’s the new BMW M5.

BMW announced the car’s specs and showed it to us a while back but so far nobody got delivery or the chance to review it. And while 600 HP sounds like an enticing offer from the 4.4-liter V8 under the hood, that’s not the highlight of the new car. Instead, people will focus more on the all-wheel drive system as this will be the first M5 to send its power to all four of its wheels. This will also allow drag racers to keep up with E63 S 4Matic models on the road, as launching the old M5 wasn’t an easy task, the car being able to easily break traction.

That’s quite evident in the video below too, even though the race was done from a rolling start. While the Mercedes simply jumps forward with no drama, the M5 does lose some momentum due to its rear wheels losing traction. Then again, after we’ve seen this tuned Bimmer taking down a Ferrari 458 and dealing with a McLaren 570S Coupe, we expected it to go down this way. The result of the race was no surprise either considering the power output of the two.

Now we know that Mercedes is usually conservative with its numbers but even so the E63 S definitely doesn’t have 750 HP at its disposal, as is the case with the tuned M5 we’re looking at here. If the race would’ve been done from a standstill, the result would’ve been considerably different, even with the added power, the M5 finding it difficult to catch up to the Merc.