2011 BMW 550i Automatic and Manual - Car and Driver (blog)

Describing a BMW 5-series with rear-wheel drive and about 400 hp from a V-8 conjures a specific memory for most car enthusiasts: the legendary E39 M5 . But since that model went out of production in 2003, BMW has armed itself to the teeth in the... Even though it doesn’t offer the cavernous accommodations of the 7-series with which it shares some architecture, the 550i is in most other ways a smaller 7-series. Power comes from BMW’s twin-turbocharged, direct-injected 4. 4-liter V-8, and delivery of the 400 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque is so smooth and quiet when hooked to the new ZF eight-speed automatic (a no-cost option) that you’ll need to have the... At the test track, the autobox edged out the manual by 0. 3 second in the sprint to 60 mph, at a mere 4. 8 seconds—the manual’s wider gearing and trickiness at launch account for the difference—but it was a draw by the time they passed the... Adaptive Drive, or HAL, for Short There’s no way to describe the driving experience in this car without addressing the network of supercomputers, which are mostly part of options packages, and its implications. Source: www.caranddriver.com