BMW 5 Series E28 M5

Every super sedan that has ever filled your mirrors owes something to the E28 M5. When it appeared at the 1985 Amsterdam Motor Show it basically invented the category. BMW took a sensible sedan, hid a thoroughbred engine inside, but kept it low-key. The engine was the M88, lifted nearly intact from the M1 supercar, a 3.5-liter straight-six good for 282 hp (US cars ran a catalyst-equipped version closer to 256). At launch it was the fastest production sedan in the world, and it made more power than a contemporary Ferrari 328.

The genius was in the restraint. No wings, no shouty graphics, just a small badge and a slightly lowered stance hinting at the trouble underneath. Each car was assembled largely by hand, and BMW built only around 2,200 across the entire 1985 to 1988 run.

Today the E28 is the founding document of the whole M5 idea, the car every successor has spent forty years reinterpreting. Values have climbed to match that importance, especially for clean, unmolested examples with paperwork intact. If you want the genuine article, the original business-suit-with-running-shoes BMW, this is where it starts.