TRUE to its engineering roots, BMW has fired a shot across the bows of its direct rivals in the Mercedes-Benz E500 and Audi's A6 4.2 quattro by replacing its 4.4-litre V8-powered 545i sedan with not one, but two cracking new V8s. Lifted directly from the facelifted 7 Series limousine range launched Down Under in June last year, a 225kW/390Nm 4.0-litre V8 revives the previous-generation E39 5 Series' 540i nameplate, while a storming new 270kW/490Nm 4.8-litre bent eight in the 550i sedan brings to two the number of V8 variants available in BMW's E60 5 Series range for the first time. The latter brings greater performance than (and similar fuel consumption to) the superseded 545i, as well as putting up a strong argument against the 285kW 5.5-litre V8 that's set to power the facelifted E500.