This is a blog about the BMW F10 M5.
"F10" is the internal BMW designator for the latest 5-Series mid-sized 4-door sedan released in 2010 for the 2011 model year. The "M" stands for "M Motorsports Division". These guys inside BMW take the top-of-the-line regular 5-Series, work some factory tuning magic on it, and sell it as the top-of-the-class car for the performance-oriented. I'll get into the history of BMW and its cars in a later post.
So why this blog?
I recently decided to trade in my car and buy a new one. I really wanted, at this stage in my life, to enjoy a great performance-oriented car. I did my research online, and I test drove my shortlist, and decided the F10 M5 was the car for me. I ordered one, and it is due to arrive very soon now.
Now, anybody who knows me can tell you I really love technology (Ph.D. in Computer Science - worked in technology for the last 25 years), I love going deep and learning all about the technology that I touch, and I enjoy sharing my passion with others of similar interests.
The first thing I did after ordering the car was to start in on doing my detailed research. I did this with my previous car eight years ago as well, and wrote up a big booklet about it that nobody read except me; but the act of creating that booklet, organizing it, and trying to explain complex things in simple terms solidified my own understanding. Therefore I decided to do the same thing with this car, and started in on a Microsoft Word document. It's up to about 80 pages now and still not done...
Then I got to thinking. This information is hard to find, and hard to assimilate, and I put a lot of effort into grabbing pictures from the web to illustrate concepts and explain things clearly (even for just my own benefit). But I wonder if others might not be interested as well? So, why not instead of writing another booklet nobody will read, why not put the information into a blog that maybe others might enjoy? Certainly, as I was doing my research, I kept asking myself, "why is this stuff so hard to find? It shouldn't be!"). And so this blog is born.
As a technologist I dislike jargon-heavy cryptic explanations of things that only tell you half the story. I feel that if you truly understand something, you should be able to explain it accurately and in easy to understand terms. So this blog is a challenge to myself. See if I have really done enough work to truly understand. Since I am not a mechanic, and not an engineer, I have the great advantage of not knowing a lot, and so can relate to others who do not know a lot as well.
The F10 M5 is the journey. But to understand this car, you need to understand about cars in general, so I will frequently take detours to explain underlying concepts that apply to all modern cars. I also love history, so don't be surprised if I dive off into the history of things in some posts as well.
I am publishing this blog under a pseudonym, because it is a darned expensive car, and I certainly don't want to be targeted for a robbery! If you are a legit person or organization you can contact me through this blog and we can arrange to get in touch.
To BMW, I hope you will find favour with this blog, as it is a celebration of the marvellous achievements of engineers, the automobile industry in general, and BMW in particular. Having voted with my wallet (twice now!), I obviously think your cars are the best (at least for me).
I am assuming that the images I use in the blog are not copyrighted, but if you are the owner of an image and feel I have violated your copyright, please let me know and I will take it right down, or include an acknowledgement if you prefer. Certainly this blog has no ads and is not designed to make me money. And I am not affiliated with BMW in any way, except as a happy customer.
So, let the journey begin...
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