E34 M5

The E34 M5 was produced from 1989 to 1995, although sales in North America started in 1991 and ended in 1993. It was produced at BMW M GmbH in Garching, Germany, and, like the previous M5, was entirely hand-built. It used the 535i chassis which was produced at BMW's Dingolfing plant. Assembly was done either by a single M employee, or a team of M employees, and generally took about two weeks. It is rumoured that the test drivers of the E34 M5 could determine who or what team made each specific M5, due to characteristic quirks of the hand built nature of the E34 M5. The engines were also built by hand by BMW M technicians. All of the E34 M5 petrol engines were built to a tolerance of within 5% of advertised output.