Ferdinand Piëch, the relentless and brilliant patriarch of the Volkswagen Group, is known to bring out some legendary cars and engines. Under his rule, nothing was too ambitious, too complex or too strange. This era gave us the engines W-8, W-12 and W-16. It showed a V10 TDI Touareg and almost gave us a Bugatti with an eighteen cylinder engine. And somewhere in this fever dream of innovation Piëch tacitly commissioned something more unusual: a W10 engine that was stuffed into none other than a BMW M5.
The myth becomes reality
For years the “W10 M5” was hardly more than internet -folklore -an automobile bigfoot. Some believed that Volkswagen had built a ten cylinder W engine. Less believed that one had ever been installed in a car. But in 2023, The drive followed the apparently last surviving W10 engine. And then in 2025, drive Finally confirmed what many suspected: The difficult to meager W10 M5 not only exists – it is going. And it tears.
According to the dyno, the car on the wheels makes 480 hp and translates to around 530 hp on the crank. This is more than the S62 V8 of the E39 M5 share, which produced 394 hp and even exceeds the next generation to screaming S85 V10 and evaluates 500 hp. Not bad for an experimental engine that was cobbled together over two decades ago.
So … why? That is the real question. Why did Volkswagen decide from all companies to build a W10 engine and put it in the car of a rival?
At that time, VW had no real performance sedan. The Audi RS6 was still a niche project. The Porsche Panamera would not arrive until 2009. If you wanted to evaluate your wild new engine, you needed a car with the right balance between chassis dynamics, space and subtlety. And the E39 BMW M5? That was the standard.
It wasn’t just good – it was perfect. It had space under the bonnet. It handled brilliantly. It flew under the radar. And it was crucial with a six-speed manual transmission, ideal for development. So VW bought one, remembered in her W10 prototype and began what the strangest case of company espionage-slash engineering must have been.
Built with purpose
This was not a hackjob garage exchange. According to reports, Volkswagen said 2 million euros to develop the prototype. The W10 itself was essentially two VR5 engines that were merged with each other, but in contrast to conventional VR units, it showed a light aluminum block. VW even produced a tailor -made carbon fiber box and led the engine through an independent ECU.
Inside it is another world. The car was freed from driving aid – no ABS, no traction control, no stability system. It has auxiliary meters and an instrument cluster inspired by breeds. It smells of fuel and raw exhaust. It is as raw as any prototype.
And according to rumors, Ferdinand Piëch drove it to work. Daily.
Three engines, one car
Volkswagen reported three W10S. The one can be seen in the Drivetribe video in the M5. The second engine, which was once lost, appeared in Germany in Germany with a VW mechanic, which was communicated that the others had been destroyed. The third? It is now assumed that it is sitting in a private collection – still intact, still mysterious.
This is not the first M5 with a crazy engine of another brand. One of Bavaria’s best kept is the use of an M5 E34 Tours as a test mule for the V12, which went into the McLaren F1. Unfortunately, the M division refused to show the super car in public. Hopefully one day BMW Classic will reveal the ultimate E34, unless you have been a family car that rules them all. We are happy to believe that it hides deeply in BMW’s warehouse.
For sale – if you dare
The W10 M5 can now be won. The price for price? About 500,000 US dollars, about as high as with a Ferrari Purosangue. It is certainly a crazy number-but when you buy a unique prototype created by VWS top engineers and is handpicked by Piëch himself, don’t just buy a car. You buy a story.
[Source: Drivetribe]
First published by https://www.bmwblog.com
