BMW M5 Has Drifting Crash on Nurburgring, a Quick Lesson on Grip

Alas, the worst part of this bad dream is the fact that an E39 BMW M5 got its face smashed in the sliding process.

It's all shown in the piece of footage at the bottom of the page, which starts with the E39 M5 going from oversteer to understeer as it exits the corner - pay close attention to the front wheels, as well as to the car's trajectory and you'll notice how this M5 switches from one grip loss state to the other as the driver tries to keep things under sideways control.

The man finally loses the M5 to oversteer, with the Bimmer plowing nose-first into the protection element on the side of the track. And while we applaud the guy for not stopping in an unsafe area, we're curious how he recovered his plate.

Regardless, the extreme grip play seen here is the kind that should've tipped the guy off on what was about to happen. Usually, drifting requires on to work against the conservation instinct and counterintuitively smash the throttle, but there are times when cutting your losses by ending the sliding early can be the best solution - this seems like one of those times.

The tricky grip changes came from the banked configuration of the bend - factor in the ever-changing Nurburgring weather and you end up with a risky equation.

We've saved the car mod part for last - as BMW aficionados will easily notice, this M5 has had its factory wheels swapped with larger units, a move that might improve the look, but certainly doesn't help with the balance required by powersliding. And it's not difficult to figure out this is yet another lesson.