BMW M5 (E60)

The years from 2004 to 2010 now feel like a distinct chapter in this 600 car catalogue, and the BMW M5 (E60) captures that moment with unusual clarity. It is the least expensive V10 here, available used at around £25,000, yet it belongs to a group that numbers just 21 cars out of 600. Narrow the search again to V10 power and rear wheel drive, and only nine cars remain. That combination tells you more about its place than any badge ever could. This was an era that still found room for ambitious engineering choices, even when they were far from common.

The figures reinforce that impression without pretending to dominate every leaderboard. A 5.0 litre V10 producing 500 bhp and 520 Nm sends its power to the rear wheels, enough for 0 to 100 km/h in 4.7 seconds and a top speed of 250 km/h. Within this catalogue those numbers place it 334th for power, 431st for acceleration and 414th for top speed. There are quicker cars, more powerful cars and more expensive cars. That is precisely the point. Its appeal comes from the way an uncommon engine layout appears in a package that does not demand the highest entry price among rare mechanical configurations. At roughly £50 per bhp, it makes a persuasive numerical case before emotion enters the discussion.

Scarcity is present, but it does not need exaggeration. Production totalled 1,984 cars, making it rarer than 63 of the 177 catalogued cars for which production figures are available, while 114 are rarer still. It sits in the middle ground between mass availability and extreme exclusivity, a position that suits the rest of its character. Germany contributes 197 cars to the catalogue and BMW accounts for 48 of them, yet even within those numbers this particular formula remains unusual.

Remove this car from a dream garage and the collection loses its most accessible route into a V10 with rear wheel drive. Include it and the picture changes. The garage gains a four door saloon that represents a very specific period from 2004 to 2010, one where engineering ambition could still outweigh convention. It fills a space that almost nothing else in the catalogue can occupy, not because it outguns everything around it, but because so few cars arrive at the same destination by the same route.