For some reason, one of the special 2015 BMW M5 30th Jahre Anniversary Edition out of the 30 that were imported in to the U.S. market didn't find a buyer at first. However, once it went to auction, it unsurprisingly managed to sell for a rather hefty sum of $700,000 on January 15, 2015, with the cash going to the BMW Club of America Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization.

Apparently, the winner is known NASCAR->ke3635 team owner and rare-car hunter Rick Hendrick, of Hendrick Motorsports, who also owns a museum with over 200 cars in North Carolina and who apparently said that the M5->ke2922 will not be used as a daily driver but as a museum piece since it is a very rare vehicle. Hendrick is also known for having bought the first-ever 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray in both coupe and convertible guises for a cool $1,000,000 each, so he is no stranger to severely overpaying for certain unique cars.

Before the auction, BMW->ke178 of North America had pledged to provide an M Driving School program for two to the winning bidder, but seeing as Rick Hendrick began his career in auto racing at age 14 and even has four NASCAR races under his belt, I think that the offer may be respectfully turned down. The M5 came in Dark Frozen Silver paint with black-chrome accents and light-alloy wheels, while the interior is adorned in black-and-grey leather with Alcantara accents, and an array of "30 Jahre M5" logos sprinkled both outside and inside the car.

Click past the jump to read more about the BMW M5 "30 Years of M5" Limited Edition.

Why it matters

Only 300 BMW M5 30 Jahre Anniversary Edition were ever built, of which 30 were destined for the United States. Heralded as the most powerful production BMW in the history of the brand, the model is powered by a twin-turbocharged, 4.4-liter V-8 with no less than 600 horsepower and 516 pound-feet for torque. That, and the fact that it can hit 62 mph from a standing start in just 3.9 seconds is completely irrelevant considering that the car will end up in a museum though.

Still, with that being said, at least the car went to a true petrol-head. Apart from costing as much as two Lamborghinis,->ke44 this very example of the BMW M5 30 Jahre Anniversary Edition is also the most expensive modern BMW in recent history, with the only other models to obtain a higher auction price being either rare classics or racing cars with certain pedigree.

BMW M5 "30 Years of M5"