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The last car to use the iconic twin-cam 24-valve Motorsport engine (initially designated M88 and later S38), the E34 M5 is an underappreciated classic. Today, it is one of the few still-to-be-discovered Radwood era driver’s cars. Contemporary journalists reveled in the car’s undeniably sporting ethos, especially when driven with purpose. Although it is a mid-sized sedan, its dynamic characteristics give it the soul of a sports car. Available exclusively with a manual transmission, the car is powered by an engine originally conceived for racing. Its individual throttle bodies provide a level of throttle response rarely offered in a road car of any type, let alone an executive sedan. It is an engine that thrives on revs, makes magnificent noise, and stirs the enthusiast heart more convincingly than the engines in virtually every sports car available of its day. The chassis is equally keen, and virtually every dynamic characteristic of the car shines best when the driver is in a hurry.
In less demanding use, however, the E34 M5 is a perfectly pleasant luxury car, offering a level of refinement and features that was a significant advancement over its predecessor and justified its $65,000 price for a sedan M5 in the United States. In Europe, however, the car was available with an additional layer of duality via the station wagon version. Not only was this the first of only a small number of M car station wagons that have ever been made, it was among the world’s first performance station wagons, beating Audi’s RS2 by two years and handily eclipsing the 227 hp C4 generation Audi S4 Avant which appeared around the same time as the E34 M5 wagon.
The initial E34 M5 was powered by a 3.6 liter version of the S38, but all E34 M5 wagons featured the enlarged 3.8 liter version, which made 340 rather than 310 horsepower. Never offered in the United States, the wagon variant is rare, just 891 were built.
This particular example was sold new in Germany and imported to the United States in 2020. Since then, the car has received extensive maintenance and is in remarkable condition. In the last 18 months, the car has received a front suspension rebuild including upper and lower control arms, center drag link, pitman arm, tie rod assemblies, sway bar end links, and sway bar bushings. The valves were also adjusted, the spark plugs replaced, the fuel injectors serviced and the seals replaced, and the engine and transmission mounts replaced together with the battery. Other work at this time included replacing the front brake calipers, pads and soft brake lines, clutch hose, and bleeding the clutch.
Between 2021 and 2023 under the care of the previous owner, the car received a partial respray servicing the suspension including installing self-leveling struts and accumulators, fitting new tires, replacing the rear driveshaft joint, guibo, and center bearing, plus countless other small repairs and routine maintenance items.
The car is now in excellent mechanical and cosmetic condition, with the only mechanical items to note being some noise from the gearbox in first and second gears while accelerating, and some play in the steering box which is common in these cars. It should also be noted that the air conditioning is not currently functioning as well.
The car is otherwise in superb order, presenting like a car with much fewer kilometers. It has a binder of service records showing tens of thousands of dollars of expenditure in the last four years, tools, plus car cover and owner’s manual pack.
