BMW E39 M5 - The Ultimate Chase Car

The BMW E39 M5 is a dream for many petrolheads, one petrolhead has just taken his passion and created the ultimate chase car. 

Most petrolheads and surely every Beemer boy out there would remember a commercial from back in the day which featured a BMW M5 shooting a car-to-car shot of a land speed record vehicle at full tilt, only to overtake it towards the end of its run before coming to stop. The video ends with the driver racing out of his car to check if he had the footage, before finally revealing the E39 BMW M5 as the chase car.

The commercial sent a simple yet powerful message of the M5 being the fastest production saloon on the planet. The video below just in case you have not seen it.

Fast forward 20 years, Jamie Heslup and his team have created his dream chase vehicle using an E39 BMW M5 as the base for the cutting-edge camera rig.

As he states in the video, its been more than a 10-year pursuit of wanting to create the perfect chase vehicle to shoot high-intensity, high-speed scenes with startling quality which led him to choose the M5 for its blend of performance, handling, high-speed stability, and ability to carry four crew members to effectively get the shots he desired.

Dubbed the ‘Bavarian Ranch Hand’ this purpose-built M5 is fitted with a Speed Rail, a 3-Axis dampening Flowcine Black Arm and Ronin 2 and Alexa Mini camera setup. The rig is mounted using points on available from the tow hook, roof rack and other points of the M5 on the front.

As for the M5, it’s basically a stock E39 M5 with 5.0-litre V8 with 400 hp, channelled to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. Also, note a 250 km/h top speed that allows for some sensational bit of footage everytime he turns the key.

While the E39 M5 is a rarity in Malaysia, it’s good to know we can still find some great examples of the E39 5 Series on Carlist.my.