2017 BMW 5 Series Touring (G31) Tears Up the Nurburgring With Its Sedan Brother

For all its incredible sound and performance, the M5 Touring wasn't a mind-blowing car. It was based on one of the ugliest wagons the company had ever made and it wasn't an excellent everyday car.

But thanks to twin-turbo technology, the 550i Touring could offer so much more, including AWD, a high-tech dash, and the capacity to reach 100 km/h in well under 5 seconds (M5 Touring did it in 4.8s). Modern 8-speed automatic gearboxes are also noticeably smoother than the ones on the E60.

We know the G30 5 Series sedan will debut at the next Detroit Auto Show. But we're not sure when the wagon will come out. Not all the engines will be available from the get-go either. However, we're confident the 550i will be used to define our opinions of the car.

Eventually, there will also be a diesel alternative. However, that's not what we're seeing in this Nurburgring spy video. The M550d will walk down the same path as the Bugatti Veyron by having four turbochargers in total, all feeding the same 3-liter block.

All the other engines will have the same displacements as they do now, but the will get slight increases in horsepower and fuel consumption reductions.

Oh, and by the way, the next family of 5ers will mark the first time BMW uses 3D mapping. Sensors that are accurate to within 100 µm will allow flaws to be discovered more quickly and effectively between development and series production.