Wiesmann's cult MF5 is back, in a run of just five cars
Wiesmann is reviving its cult MF5 sports car, in a run of just five.
Wiesmann unveiled the MF5 Tributo at Pebble Beach during Monterey Car Week, reviving the nameplate of its cult 2008-2013 coachbuilt sports car after fewer than 200 originals were built before the company's collapse. The Tributo marks a pivot back to combustion power just as Wiesmann's Project Thunderball electric roadster has stalled, with only five examples being hand-assembled at the brand's Gecko factory in Germany.
The original MF5 earned its cult status honestly
The first MF5 wrapped a lightweight, coachbuilt body around BMW M's naturally aspirated 5.0-litre S85 V10, the same engine from the contemporary E60 M5, rated at 500hp and good for a sub-4-second 0-100km/h time. Wiesmann later offered an MF5 GT using a twin-turbocharged V8 instead, rated at 547hp, after BMW stopped building the S85 in 2010. Fewer than 200 examples of both versions were built before Wiesmann collapsed in 2013.
What Wiesmann says is under the hood
Wiesmann has described the Tributo's engine as a naturally aspirated BMW M5 V8 paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. BMW did build a naturally aspirated V8 M5, the S62 in the E39 generation, though that car came from the factory with a manual gearbox. As a coachbuilder that has always re-engineered BMW hardware to its own spec, pairing that engine with a different gearbox is well within Wiesmann's usual playbook.
Numbers that are actually confirmed
What is solid is the scale. Wiesmann is hand-building just five examples of the MF5 Tributo at its Gecko factory in Dülmen, Germany, with US availability confirmed and a €3,000 (roughly $3,500) reservation now open through the company's website, though the initial five cars are reportedly already spoken for. Pricing has not been announced.
The retro formula stays intact
Visually, the Tributo sticks to the formula that made the original MF5 distinctive: a cartoonishly long hood, a low, compact cabin, and front-mid-engine proportions that lean closer to a 1960s roadster than a modern supercar. Wiesmann has been characteristically light on detail beyond that, saying only that the car “comes alive on the roads that lead there,” and treating Pebble Beach as a moment to be seen rather than to present a formal specification sheet.
A gasoline lifeline while the EV plan stalls
The timing says as much as the car itself. Wiesmann's Project Thunderball, an all-electric two-seat convertible the brand had pitched as a genuine first for the segment, has been delayed amid softer demand, and the MF5 Tributo reads as a way to keep the brand visible and its enthusiast base engaged while that program works itself out. A follow-up project called Meisterwerk is reportedly scheduled to debut in spring 2027, with no specifications disclosed yet.
AutoNext Take
The interesting story here is not really the engine, it is the timing. Wiesmann has picked exactly the moment its ambitious electric roadster stalled to lean back into the thing it has always done well: wrap a proven BMW engine in a shape enthusiasts already love.
Five cars, reportedly already spoken for before most people even knew the car existed, tells you Wiesmann does not need this to be a volume play. It needs it to be proof of life, the same instinct behind Mercedes reviving flat-plane V8 drama for the next Black Series. Heritage sells when the future is still being figured out.
None of that requires Wiesmann's engine description to be wrong. A small coachbuilder mixing an older naturally aspirated V8 with a modern gearbox of its own choosing is exactly the kind of thing this company has built its entire identity on. The bigger question is not what is under the hood, it is whether Meisterwerk, the project Wiesmann has already teased for 2027, can carry that same trick further than five cars at a time.
