Shootout video pits BMW M5 against Porsche Panamera GTS

It's not like we needed it, but the latest episode of Motor Trend's "Head 2 Head" is more proof that those who spend six-figures buy whatever they want (or more likely, they buy three or four of them), not necessarily what wins the spec war or a drag race.

Jonny Lieberman took two German thunder chariots, the BMW M5 and Porsche Panamera GTS, to the desert for a quarter-mile blast and then up to altitude for duty in the high mountain esses.

In black and white, the M5 has it all over the GTS. Although the properly trunked sedan weighs 39 pounds more, its 4.4-litre, twin-turbo V8 harnesses 130 more horsepower and 196 more pound-feet than the naturally-aspirated 4.8-litre V8 in the GTS. The BMW starts at less than the Porsche, a savings which skyrockets when as-tested prices for these particular cars are compared. For those wondering, an even greater price disparity is the reason MT didn't use the Panamera Turbo, which might have seemed a fairer car to use for comparison from a performance standpoint.

But we don't live black-and-white lives, do we? There are reasons for Porsche reverence, one of them that it has always done more with what might, at first, seem like less.

You should allow Lieberman the chance to explain further by clicking here to check out the video.