Extremely fast SUVs are two-a-penny these days. More than a few of them are capable of a sub-8-minute lap of the Nordschleife, too. But things were rather different a quarter of a century ago. The original BMW X5, the E53, launched in 1999, was arguably the first attempt to mimic car-like handling in a high-sided model – an endeavour its manufacturer was so serious about it, it famously insisted on referring to it as the Sports Activity Vehicle, as if the concept of \u2018utility\u2019 would denigrate its hard work. Or perhaps fail to distinguish it from the L322 Range Rover it was helping to develop at the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Anyway, to highlight just how diligent it had been with its efforts – and to celebrate the startling victory of the V12 LMR in 1999 – BMW transplanted the Le Mans winner\u2019s engine (yes, that<\/em> engine, the racing derivative of the S70 used in the McLaren F1) into an E53, bolted on some carbon fibre parts and 20-inch BBS LM wheels and declared it the X5 Le Mans. Probably you\u2019ve heard of it because it was a) mental, clearly – and b) it famously set a sub-8-minute lap at the Nurburgring back in 2001 with Hans-Joachim Stuck sawing away at the wheel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
And what better way, 25 years later, to salute the fusing of V12 and X5 than by echoing the feat with another one-off E53 with a preposterously large petrol engine. Or at any rate that\u2019s what we assume Ronnie Fieg is alluding to with Kith\u2019s latest BMW project, given he has subjected a Titanium Silver Metallic example from 2000 to a \u2018complete rotisserie restoration\u2019, that includes not just a 5.0-litre V10, but also the six-speed manual gearbox that made the X5 Le Mans such a wild prospect (check out the YT vid below for evidence).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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