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Kith channels X5 LM with epic V10-powered E53

How best to showcase a new BMW X5-based collaboration? Echo the one-off Le Mans, obviously

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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 ‘utility’ 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. 

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’s engine (yes, that 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’ve 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. 

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’s what we assume Ronnie Fieg is alluding to with Kith’s latest BMW project, given he has subjected a Titanium Silver Metallic example from 2000 to a ‘complete rotisserie restoration’, 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). 

Fieg doesn’t actually mention the LM specifically in his Instagram post on the subject, but he does note his ‘love’ for the BMW archive, and reiterates that the Kith’s E53 - the latest result of a long-running collaboration with the manufacturer - was not the work of a moment. The integration of the naturally aspirated V10 (a first for the X5) and its unfamiliar transmission is said to have taken a year, and ‘has made this model the most detailed and intensive rebuild out of all the BMW projects I’ve worked on.’ 

The wider purpose of the project is, unsurprisingly enough, the promotion of the all-new iteration, and Fieg promises a 2027 BMW X5 by Kith will be unveiled at Pebble Beach this week alongside the E53 - though it’s safe to assume the V10-powered car will draw focus. Full details are still to come, though it seems the S85 has retained its 500hp output and the capacity to rev to 8,250rpm. Kith suggests the E60 M5’s engine has transformed ‘the X5 into something genuinely unprecedented: a rare, analogue, emotionally charged interpretation of BMW M engineering, centred on one of Munich’s most celebrated powerplants, with a modern sense of purpose.’ 

That sounds pretty good to us - and it would be a shock if Kith’s E53 doesn’t literally sound good to everyone at Monterey. A sneak social peek of the car suggests the body has received some attention too, though interestingly Fieg notes that it retains the factory all-wheel drive system - which presumably means the original 38:62 front-to-rear torque split has been kept, too. At any rate, we don’t have long to wait to find out. Probably it’s too much to hope that another Nordschleife time is in the offing…

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[JottoSW1]

Thought someone had resto-modded a Rover 75 for a second

[Jte3397]

I'm sure it will be well engineered and, being of that era of BMW, I'm also sure I'd be all over it but the hyperbolic bks that accompanies these.... hopefully it'll look similar to the original.

[GTEYE]

It might be just me, but i don’t think the E53 hasn’t aged very well, it looks like a greenhouse on wheels. The E46 coupe on the other hand, lovely.

IMHO obviously.

[mjspencer348]

I had to Google Ronnie Fieg to find out who the hell he is. I'm not going to stand in the way of a man and his car dreams, but a V10 first-gen BMW X5 wouldn't be on my bucket list.

[nismo48]

Fair play to him for his ingenuity and courage to build this special vehicle.

[trevalvole]

So a two-ton-plus SUV with an engine that hits peak torque of 384 lbft at 6100 rpm sounds like a pain to drive to me, unless you are completely on it. Surely an engine with a load of (probably forced induction) low speed torque would be better?

[1976Jarama]

I saw this car at Goodwood one year, it wheel spined all 4 wheels at the start/finish! The noise!

[pSyCoSiS]

V12 in an X5 was madness back in 2001.

I actually think the early X5s have aged really well, especially when you see original examples without silly wheels, kits, tints, etc.

Especially compared to modern offerings, the E53 was a handsome car and a gamechanger in its own right.

[je777]

You probably could find a worse vehicle to put that engine in, but you'd struggle.
At every hard corner, you'd be praying it didn't topple over.
Can't be too many engine swaps that put the engine in a heavier car than the original.

[GTRene]

lovely monster, love the start up sound.

also love that model X5 M, still looking good.

I guess you could put a supercharger on the more base X5 M the 4.4/4.6/4.8 V8 engine and have fun with around 500hp from the V8

[Jte3397]

GTRene said:

lovely monster, love the start up sound.

also love that model X5 M, still looking good.

I guess you could put a supercharger on the more base X5 M the 4.4/4.6/4.8 V8 engine and have fun with around 500hp from the V8

I thought the X5 M started with the E70? They were 4.6/ 4.8is otherwise? Or was that just UK badging?

[Cristio Nasser]

So the link to the X5 LM is a presumption by the author and not the inspiration for the builder. Which would explain the somewhat random V10 transplant, and not a souped up V12.

[GTRene]

Jte3397 said:

I thought the X5 M started with the E70? They were 4.6/ 4.8is otherwise? Or was that just UK badging?

you are right, I meant the V8 series from 1999-2006 with the V8 4.4 or 4.6 or 4.8L the M is not mentioned by those I saw when looking at a few an hour or so ago I thought huh, only 1 or 2 for sale as X5 M till 2006 then looked at the V8 versions to 2006 and presto, there they were

somehow the M is in my head, so I guess by the next E53 or so thread I again fall for that

[mjspencer348]

je777 said:

Can't be too many engine swaps that put the engine in a heavier car than the original.

And there can't be many swaps where the engine is worth more than the car it's going in, considerably more in this case, making it the world's second most valuable E53 X5, after the V12 LM.

[Jte3397]

GTRene said:

you are right, I meant the V8 series from 1999-2006 with the V8 4.4 or 4.6 or 4.8L the M is not mentioned by those I saw when looking at a few an hour or so ago I thought huh, only 1 or 2 for sale as X5 M till 2006 then looked at the V8 versions to 2006 and presto, there they were

somehow the M is in my head, so I guess by the next E53 or so thread I again fall for that

Hartge did a 5.0l E53 but I think it was a bored out M62 rather than the S62. The 4.6 ( and maybe the 4.8) were Alpina built so close to a M. I looked at them myself, rather sadly as they looked smart in carbonschwartz and would have matched my M3. One day maybe..

[asci.white]

trevalvole said:

So a two-ton-plus SUV with an engine that hits peak torque of 384 lbft at 6100 rpm sounds like a pain to drive to me, unless you are completely on it.

Not at all. That's the point of the bhp / torque curve of the engine and how it puts power down. The fact it can spin all four wheels at will from rest or in gear throws your point out of the window.

I've seen this beast and it can move in ways something that large really shouldn't be able too.

[trevalvole]

asci.white said:

trevalvole said:

So a two-ton-plus SUV with an engine that hits peak torque of 384 lbft at 6100 rpm sounds like a pain to drive to me, unless you are completely on it.

Not at all. That's the point of the bhp / torque curve of the engine and how it puts power down. The fact it can spin all four wheels at will from rest or in gear throws your point out of the window.

I've seen this beast and it can move in ways something that large really shouldn't be able too.

Yes, that's why all current performance SUVs use high-revving naturally-aspirated engines. There's the Ferrari Purosangue and, err...

[GTRene]

Jte3397 said:

GTRene said:

you are right, I meant the V8 series from 1999-2006 with the V8 4.4 or 4.6 or 4.8L the M is not mentioned by those I saw when looking at a few an hour or so ago I thought huh, only 1 or 2 for sale as X5 M till 2006 then looked at the V8 versions to 2006 and presto, there they were

somehow the M is in my head, so I guess by the next E53 or so thread I again fall for that

Hartge did a 5.0l E53 but I think it was a bored out M62 rather than the S62. The 4.6 ( and maybe the 4.8) were Alpina built so close to a M. I looked at them myself, rather sadly as they looked smart in carbonschwartz and would have matched my M3. One day maybe..

true, it was indeed a bored out M62B44 no vanos, maybe later they used the vanos variant, of that I'm not sure.
My old Z3 coupe had the M62B44 non vanos to 5.0 and made more power then the M5 engine, but this one was a special version of their 5.0 same engine landed in a few Ascari Ecosse 5.0 (before that they used the Hartge 4.7 V8)

lovely engines, making a great sound and nice power curve

[Jte3397]

GTRene said:

true, it was indeed a bored out M62B44 no vanos, maybe later they used the vanos variant, of that I'm not sure.
My old Z3 coupe had the M62B44 non vanos to 5.0 and made more power then the M5 engine, but this one was a special version of their 5.0 same engine landed in a few Ascari Ecosse 5.0 (before that they used the Hartge 4.7 V8)

lovely engines, making a great sound and nice power curve

I love those Z3 coupes. I remember the Ascari. What a combo!