In late 1995, just prior to switching to the E39 5-series body style for the 1997 model year (there is no such thing as a U.S. 1996 model year 5-series), BMW pumped one last breath of life into the V8 powered, E34-bodied, 540i for the U.S. market: The 1995 540i Sport . They did this by using almost all of the parts that went into the European 1995 6-cylinder E34 ///M5, except the engine and transmission. 200 of these 540i Sport models were sold in the U.S. 135 of them had the 6-speed manual transmission and the rest (65) had the automatic.


http://www.kindel.com/bmw/m540_info.htm