BMW 5 Series F90

The F90 broke the M5's oldest rule and sent power to all four wheels. When it landed in 2018, the first all-wheel-drive M5 set off the usual hand-wringing, then ended the argument by being savagely fast in any weather. Importantly, BMW included a 2WD mode that disconnects the front axle completely, and (last I checked) holds the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous drift... perhaps an effort from the Bavarians to show the people AWD doesn't mean less fun.

Under the hood sat a thoroughly reworked S63 twin-turbo V8 making 600 hp, or 617 in Competition trim, all of it going through an eight-speed automatic. The dual-clutch and the manual were both gone by now, a clear signal of where the M5 was headed. The headline was the launch: 0 to 60 mph in roughly three seconds, a figure that belonged to supercars not long before.

The pick of the range is the 2022 CS, a lighter, sharper 627-hp version that turned out to be the last purely combustion-powered M5. In hindsight the F90 reads as the close of an era, the final M5 you could buy with no battery in the equation. It is brutally quick, easy to use daily, and looking more and more like a high point the cars after it would chase in a very different direction.