There’s good reason the 2006 BMW M5 invites comparison to rocket ships. Not only are there 56 (!) buttons and controls for the driver to select from, but the sedan is also packed with space-age technology. That total of 56 doesn’t even include the steering wheel, gear shift, door handles or other basic controls. And many of the buttons are multi-functional, such as the iDrive, which operates the climate control, entertainment, navigation, telephone and the fantastic MDrive system.

MDrive lets you tailor the M5’s driving character by providing more than 280 combinations of settings that control such things as power and throttle response, manual or automatic shifting, three suspension damping selections, a trio of stability control modes, head-up display configurations, and the response level of the active seat backs. There are also separate buttons for each of these functions.

You might assume that the abundance of buttons is intimidating, but it’s not. Instead it reinforces the notion that you are sitting in a state-of-the-art road-eating machine. In MDrive’s default mode, the car provides a maximum of 400 hp with normal throttle response, but you can program it for all 500 hp and lightning-quick response. Select the electronic damping control’s Sport level for race-ready suspension settings and greater steering effort. You can also set the degree of stability control from normal to M dynamic to give the car a wider handling envelope at the limit (but, remember, we don’t recommend turning it off). Finally, you can link each of your settings to the MDrive button on the steering wheel. Then, once you’ve got your preferences programmed, just push the “M” button and you’re in business. Big time.

Until now, BMW has never offered a V-10 engine in an M car. But for the new 2006 M5, BMW wanted five liters of total displacement and since ideal cylinder displacement is half a liter, the mandate required a 10-cylinder motor. Inspired by the automaker’s Formula 1 racing engine and like the M3’s 3.2-liter V6, the M5’s powerplant is designed for high-revving performance. It doesn’t hit redline until an incredible 8,250 rpm and its peak 500 hp isn’t reached until 7,750. Peak torque of 383 lb.-ft. is attained lower down the band at 6,100 rpm, which provides a smoother delivery of power. The engine also has a throttle for each cylinder, which maximizes the engine’s breathing ability (the faster it can get air, the faster it can burn fuel and the faster you can burn rubber) and provides ultra-quick response to the throttle. So when you mash the go-pedal, you go. Fast. How fast? The 2006 BMW M5 can post a 0-60 acceleration time of 4.5 seconds, which is 0.3 seconds quicker than a 2005 Porsche 911 Carrera. Not bad for a car that can hold you, four friends and a weekend’s worth of luggage.

For now, the M5 is offered only with a seven-speed Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG), which, like a Formula 1 transmission, is a clutchless system that is operated via paddles on the steering wheel. BMW says SMG has many advantages over a regular manual gear shift, including the ability to provide seven forward gears, which would be difficult for a manual shifter to navigate. The system is also capable of shifting much faster than even an expert driver and it can be switched to automatic mode when you don’t feel like changing your own gears, like in heavy traffic. Last, there’s no clutch to burn out. BMW does understand, though, that some drivers simply must have a manual shifter with a good ol’ fashioned clutch. For them, a traditional six-speed manual will be offered in the fall of 2006.

Working with SMG is BMW’s Drivelogic, which controls shift patterns in two modes: Sequential, in which the driver shifts via the paddles; and Drive, which is automated. The system offers 11 shift programs ranging from gentle, taking-grandma-for-a-ride mode to who’s-your-mama-hard-and-fast mode. The beauty is that you can have either (and everything in between) in manual and automatic and you can make changes on the fly. The new M5 is also equipped with Electronic Damping Control (EDC), a system which adjusts the shock absorbers (to your preference) for either cushy cruising or hammering turns around the track. Of course, there’s a sacrifice of performance in the first and comfort in the latter. A middle setting offers the best of both worlds.

You could fill a book with all the many other engineering doodads that conspire to make the 2006 BMW M5 the world’s greatest sedan, but that would cut into the space we can use to describe how it feels behind the wheel.