15k: Blue Angel: 2001 BMW M5, E39 6-spd Supercharged 550hp

If you are a Navy Blue Angels F-18 Hornet pilot who has been grounded due to the congressional sequester brouhaha and in need of something blue and speedy to get your thrills…we may have found just the ticket.  This 2001 BMW M5 E39 6-spd is equipped with a 550 hp supercharged V8 and is for sale in the SF Bay area for $17,000 via craigslist.  Tip from Jeffrey L.

It is no secret that we like M5 for its 4-door space and menacing presence,  and even a stock V8 E39 M5 will be a bit of a handful with almost 400 horsepower on tap.  Turn up the volume knob to 11 with an aftermarket supercharger and, performance wise, the E39 starts knocking on the door of the later V10 E60 M5.

The E39 M5 is equipped with 4.9 liter dual-over-head-cam all-alloy V8 that puts out 394 horsepower and 369 ft-lbs of torque stock, but the seller claims 550 horsepower with the equipped ESS Stage 1 supercharger sitting next to the yellowing baby poop colored coolant expansion tank.  BMWs of this vintage are known for their overuse of cheap plastics in the cooling system, with expansion tanks, radiators, water pump impellers and all kinds of other critical components designed to last 10 years at best.  We think it makes sense to swap these things out once they get really ugly and before they fail and create uglier problems.

The interior of this E39 actually looks good compared to many similar aged BMWs, and unfortunately the hideous faux wood-grain trim was unavoidable on the M5.  The E39 M5 was only available with a manual transmission, concluding the tradition of MT-only M5s started with the E28.

This shade of BMW Lemans Blue is one of our favorite colors for the M5 and while the seller has some blacked-out kidney grills up front, everything else ‘cosmetic’ looks bone stock and in good shape. 

See a better 550 horsepower super sedan for the cost of a new Nissan Sentra?  email us: tips@dailyturismo.com