URX5M: The E53 Shop Truck — Race Support

This is the 2006 X5 4.8is — the E53 with the 4.8-liter N62 V8 that's lived at the back of the shop for years, earning its keep as the support vehicle between customer cars. We kept coming back to it. Now it's the build.

Race Support is what happens when we stop treating it like a tool. The bones stay E53; almost nothing else does. A one-off carbon-kevlar widebody goes over it, sitting on a set of 1-of-1 wheels that are already in our hands. Under it: a purpose-built performance air suspension and shock package, a limited-slip diff worked into the xDrive driveline so it actually puts the power down, and a full alcantara interior that has no business being in a twenty-year-old SUV.

Power, we're keeping quiet. We'll say only this — there's already a second engine on a stand, and the plan for it isn't modest. Most of what matters on this truck is one-off, made for this car and no other.

We're building it on camera, and the reveals land on the show in order as each phase is finished — so we're not spoiling the spec sheet here. Follow Race Support to watch a shop support vehicle turn into something that has no right to exist.