BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

FLYING WEST AT A VERY HEALTHY LICK, despite the absence of light or dry tarmac, BMW's new plug-in hybrid M5 is dispatching pre-dawn miles like a pebble skimmed perfectly over a tarn. It compresses rhythmically on its suspension and takes giant strides each time I dip into its 727-hp performance. Slip roads and bridges strobe past as tiny touchpoints on the surface.

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FLYING WEST AT A VERY HEALTHY LICK, despite the absence of light or dry tarmac, BMW's new plug-in hybrid M5 is dispatching pre-dawn miles like a pebble skimmed perfectly over a tarn. It compresses rhythmically on its suspension and takes giant strides each time I dip into its 727-hp performance. Slip roads and bridges strobe past as tiny touchpoints on the surface.

The M5's astonishing velocity proves so accessible and its chassis so stoic that, were the M50 a derestricted autobahn, I would probably settle at 240 km/h as if it were a gentle canter. As it is, I have to exercise serious self-restraint simply to avoid appearing on the news, let alone in the local magistrates' court.

This much you would expect of a super saloon that is more powerful than any of its predecessors. But it is when I leave the boring roads and head for the valleys that the M5 truly starts to get under my skin.

The road wraps around the contours of the landscape, clinging to mountainsides as the surface ripples over subsidence and snakes between imposing rocks and walls. That endless slug of power continues to define the M5, but there is a dexterity here at odds with a body as long as a last-gen 7 Series, not to mention somewhat chunkier.

M xDrive easily deals with the surplus of power. There is total composure with a strong bias to the rear in its standard setting, but slackening stability control to "unlock" 4WD Sport mode is like exploring a powerful rear-driven car's outer limits with an unobtrusive safety net. No doubt the track being some 75 millimetres wider at the front and 48 mm at the rear compared to a regular 5 Series helps.