M5 vs- M5

THE BMW M5 SEDAN TAKES ON FIS HOMONYMOUS RIVAL, THE KUBOTA M5.

- BY EZRA DYER

Ever since the debut of the seventh-generation BMW M5, the G90, we've been asked which M5 body style we prefer.

To some extent, that question will depend on your own priorities—practicality, curb weight, and style all factor into what is, ultimately, a subjective personal choice. Nonetheless, we're here to make tough decisions, so we brought two M5s together to figure out which one we'd take home ourselves. In one corner, we have the BMW M5 sedan, the latest in a line of four-door legends. In the other, a decidedly unconventional take on the M formula: the two-door, four-wheel-drive Kubota M5.

The safari trend has been going for a while— Porsche 911 Dakar, Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato, the '78 Camaro on a Blazer chassis that your uncle Duane built just to show off at the Tallahassee Mud Bash and Knife Show. The Kubota M5 takes the safari game to a new level, with aggressive Goodyear Optitrac R-1W tires (the rears are about five feet tall), a low-range gearset, and an optional brush guard. Like some previous versions of BMW’s M5, the Kubota is available in multiple power ratings, with the standard M5-091 offering 86 horsepower and the M5-111 cranking out 100 horses. Naturally, we went for the more powerful variant—the Competition model, if you will.