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I was on the highway and saw a 5-series coming up from behind. The front facia and foglights told me it was a M5 but seeing the front tire width, as it looked small, I was hoping it was a 540 since the stock 9-5 Aero wagon would be good competition at highway speeds on up. We played follow the leader through traffic and that was when I saw it was an M5.
We went through as people were blocking the left lanes that when the traffic cleared we picked up the pace. When one time I came up behind him to make a run on him and he took off shifting out of 3rd gear around 100 MPH. Then was really gone in 4th. By the time I 130 MPH he already hit 150!
I was down to 2 miles DTE and thought my play time was over when I came back up behind and signaled to exit he did too. I pulled up the gas pump next to him and as I was getting ready to pump gas he came around the pump and said, “Never had to shift down to 3rd before”. I told him the ole wagon does pretty well but it would have been a different story if I had the Nordic III Aero. I mentioned my run-in with one this past winter from 100-130+ where we were just about even. Of course we pat one anothers back with compliments about each others car when I mention that the M5 is like utopia in the 4-door rank and envy amongst sport car owners over it’s 400 horsepower. This sparked his interest and offered me a ride. I could not turn it down. The power after 100 MPH was what I expected as my 9-5 Aero with the Nordic III package that has matched it at the speed. Acceleration down low was quite impressive, as even the exhaust note was intoxicating. He let out the clutch and the car just idle along at 550 RPMs (yes, five hundred fifty). Nice feature in bumper to bumper traffic.
The car is so quite at 100 MPH as we cruised with the windows close and the sunscreen from the sunroof closed. He opened the sunroof and we continued our conversation at normal levels. Quite impressive. On the return trip down the highway he let me drive! The shifter is a bit heavier to engage than the Aero but has a nice positive action. The steering is very responsive taking the littlest of input to change direction. Turn the wheel a little more aggressively and the 4000-lbs. start to show but it is not too bad. There is virtually no engine noise until you’re really on it. And there is no tire or wind noise that you can hear in the Aero. I did feel a little bit a tire slap similar to my SP 9000s at 10 MPH.
He rides a motorcycle (bemmer, obviously) like me and definitely wants to see the Nordic III Aero. It was nice to get some respect when comparing performance with US$80,000 car.
Norm
9-5 Aero
, Tue, 10 Apr 2001 14:21:23
, Mon, 9 Apr 2001 14:44:52
, Mon, 9 Apr 2001 10:11:42
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