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BMW M5

BMW M, AMG and the Mustangs going for broke

The power play started Wednesday morning in Auto & Sport’s weekly news— BMW has nipped and tucked the M5 — what do you think?

It also gets two new buttons on its cabin controller to double up on the steering's M buttons; one to quickly switch to extinguish all the bullshit (except the collision warning and Evasion Assistant) and go to Track mode in one touch, and the other to select your personalised engine, chassis and ’box.configuration at one touch too.
No change to the power output, but that was already adequate — we managed to break 3 seconds to 100 in our test on  the old one in Competition Pack get-up....

And just in case BMW got away with any media advantage around its face-lifted M5 on Wednesday, Mercedes-AMG dropped the face-lifted AMG 63 S on us on Thursday…

Like the Beemer, the nine-speed AWD Benz sedan retains its not at all shabby standard 450kW 820Nm to still crack 100 in 3.4 seconds in S get-up, but it gains a new AMG sportscar-like bigger mouth and aero tweaks for 'better grip and engine airflow.' Chassis and other updates are said to increase the comfort envelope and broaden its performance window to — surprise, surprise — include a Race drive mode and Drift function.

Now where did we see that before…? Just bring it on!

Elsewhere, McLaren is celebrated JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya winning the 24 hour driving a F1 GTR on its race debut a quarter century ago with this new 720S Le Mans edition, but it started a few days earlier and made us think, what's this - Mustang week...?

They say that Ford Performance South Africa's new 750HP 670lb-ft Roush Stage 3 Mustang can do 100km/h in 3.6 seconds (good luck with traction!) and the quarter in 11.2. Let’s see if that have the balls to let us verify those numbers!

Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water came this - Ford has now unleashed its own 480 horse 420 foot-pound Mach 1 Mustang that 'sets a new track-ready performance standard' as it celebrates the great 1969 original. Available in 6-speed manual or 10-speed automatic for best on track performance, Ford says it's even better on the street... 

Lexus’ completely reworked IS range 'has been honed to deliver superb manoeuvrability and riding comfort at Toyota Technical Center Shimoyama’. Also packing revised styling that certainly looks the part at first glance and state-of-the-art technologies including the latest Lexus Safety System, it will come to SA early 2021.

Moving across to the utility side, we were treated to the first fruit of the swinging bakkie makers' musical chairs… See, Mazda divorced Ford, which hooked up with Volkswagen, while Mazda went to bed with Isuzu and all the bakkie alliances we all got to accept are all change. Well, here’s the spawn of the first of all those new conjugal bonds — meet the Isuzu-based Mazda BT-50

They say that all-new Mazda BT-50 fuses Mazda's Kodo-Soul of Motion design language and premium interiors with power, toughness and utilitarian functionality suited to a bakkie. No other details were revealed, but we’d expect it to be in SA in the not too distant future...

And last but not least, packing cruise control and rain-sensing wipers and starting at R266K, Mahindra launched its new-look S6 single-cab in 4x2 and 4x4 — it’s a workhorse bakkie bargain second to none…

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