BMW M5 Safety Car, Ready To Put MotoGP At Bay
2018 has been the year in which the highest-class competitions have renewed the safety cars. MotoGP is no less and that is why it has presented the new BMW M5 Safety Car, based on the new high-performance saloon from the German company. It replaces the previous BMW M2 Safety Car, used for two seasons.
BMW not only provides the category with the safety car, but also provides a large number of track-ready vehicles that complement it. These include secondary safety cars and even medical cars. These are usually large cars, like the BMW X5 M.
The monopoly that the brand has in the Motorcycle World Championship is not unusual. Without going any further, in Formula 1 Mercedes has been supplying its cars since the 90s, and this year they have been updated with the new Mercedes-AMG GT R Safety Car.
Characteristics
As usual, the most striking feature of the new safety car is the new livery with which BMW has provided the latest generation BMW M5. It will be recognizable to the most savvy, and it is based on the one carried by the BMW M8 GTE of the World Endurance Championship. Apart from this detail, it bears the MotoGP logo.
Leaving the new body finish as a tie, a new LED light bar placed on the roof and approved by the federation has been included. The operation of this and the rest of the lights is carried out through auxiliary buttons located behind the gear lever.
For the rest, the new BMW M5 Safety Car stands out for the large number of elements that M Performance offers as an option, as in the rest of the models signed by M. The most striking and effective perhaps is the new sports exhaust system, manufactured in titanium and with tails finished in carbon fiber.
This material extends to other elements such as the new and concealed rear spoiler, diffuser, footpegs, front bumper moldings and even the mirrors. In the cabin the changes have been minor, but enough to improve the driver and co-driver’s grip.
For this purpose they have been replaced seats M5 by aggressive and light baquets with carbon structure inherited from the BMW M4 GTS. With these seats, lateral movements in curves are limited, and it is that although on television it seems that it goes slowly, when it comes into action it rolls to the maximum of its possibilities.
Safety harnesses have not been included for these seats, as the mechanical section remains intact. This leaves us with a saloon that hides under the hood a V8 biturbo and 600 hp with programmable traction management. That is, you can choose between rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive xDrive.
Background
The new BMW M5 Safety Car is not the first of the brand to act as a safety car in the premier class of two wheels. The collaboration between the championship and the German firm dates back to 1999, the year in which it debuted with the BMW Z3 M Coupé.
Since then, many cars have passed through the role of safety car. In order to offer the best possible performance, cars prepared by M Motorsport have always been used, who also became official championship partners since 2006.
This marketing move gave the brand greater prominence. Since then, in addition to offering their cars as safety cars, each season finale a unit is given as a gift to the driver who has achieved the highest number of pole positions of the year.
