Ferdinand Piëch, the relentless and good patriarch of the Volkswagen Group, is thought for placing out some legendary vehicles and engines. Below his rule, nothing was too bold, too complicated, or too unusual. That period gave us the W-8, W-12, and W-16 engines. It birthed a V10 TDI Touareg and nearly gave us a Bugatti with an eighteen-cylinder engine. And someplace in that fever dream of innovation, Piëch quietly commissioned one thing much more uncommon: a W10 engine, stuffed into none apart from a BMW M5.
The Fantasy Turns into Actuality
For years, the “W10 M5” was little greater than web folklore—an automotive Bigfoot. Some believed Volkswagen had constructed a ten-cylinder W engine. Fewer believed one had ever been put in in a automobile. However in 2023, The Drive tracked down what seemed to be the final surviving W10 engine. After which in 2025, DriveTribe lastly confirmed what many had suspected: the elusive W10 M5 not solely exists—it runs. And it rips.
In line with the dyno, the automobile makes 480 horsepower on the wheels, translating to roughly 530 hp on the crank. That’s greater than the inventory E39 M5’s S62 V8, which produced 394 hp, and even outguns the next-gen E60’s screaming S85 V10, rated at 500 hp. Not dangerous for an experimental motor cobbled collectively over twenty years in the past.
So… Why? That’s the true query. Why did Volkswagen, of all firms, resolve to construct a W10 engine and put it in a rival’s automobile?
On the time, VW didn’t have a real efficiency sedan. The Audi RS6 was nonetheless a distinct segment venture. The Porsche Panamera wouldn’t arrive till 2009. In the event that they wished to benchmark their wild new engine, they wanted a automobile with the fitting stability of chassis dynamics, house, and subtlety. And the E39 BMW M5? That was the usual.
It wasn’t simply good—it was excellent. It had room underneath the hood. It dealt with brilliantly. It flew underneath the radar. And crucially, it got here with a six-speed handbook transmission, supreme for growth. So VW purchased one, dropped of their W10 prototype, and started what will need to have been the strangest case of company espionage-slash-engineering ever tried.
Constructed with Goal
This wasn’t some hackjob storage swap. Volkswagen reportedly spent €2 million growing the prototype. The W10 itself was basically two VR5 engines fused collectively, however in contrast to conventional VR models, this one featured a light-weight aluminum block. VW even fabricated a bespoke carbon fiber airbox and ran the engine via a standalone ECU.
Inside, it’s a unique world. The automobile’s been stripped of driving aids—no ABS, no traction management, no stability system. It has auxiliary gauges and a race-inspired instrument cluster. It smells of gasoline and uncooked exhaust. It’s as uncooked as any prototype comes.
And rumor has it, Ferdinand Piëch drove it to work. Day by day.
Three Engines, One Automobile
Volkswagen reportedly constructed three W10s. The one featured within the DriveTribe video lives contained in the M5. The second engine, as soon as considered misplaced, surfaced in Germany in 2023 with a VW mechanic who was advised the others had been destroyed. The third? It’s now believed to sit down in a personal assortment—nonetheless intact, nonetheless mysterious.
This isn’t the primary M5 with a loopy engine from one other model. One in every of Bavaria’s best-kept secrets and techniques is utilizing an M5 E34 Touring as a check mule for the V12 that went into the McLaren F1. Sadly, the M division has refused to point out the tremendous wagon in public. Hopefully, BMW Traditional will reveal the final word E34 in the future, except they’ve scrapped what would’ve been the one household automobile to rule all of them. We wish to imagine it hides deep in BMW’s warehouse.
For Sale—If You Dare
The W10 M5 is now up for grabs. The asking value? Round $500,000, roughly the identical as a Ferrari Purosangue. It’s an insane quantity, certain—however then once more, if you’re shopping for a one-off prototype constructed by VW’s prime engineers, handpicked by Piëch himself, you’re not simply shopping for a automobile. You’re shopping for a narrative.
[Source: Drivetribe]
First revealed by https://www.bmwblog.com
