Marv’s Garage: BMW stuff a Le Mans V12 in an SUV

The 1999 X5 Le Mans is one of the great examples of a time when concept cars were unashamedly influenced by actual race cars, as BMW actually stuffed a 700hp 6.0-litre V12 from their Le Mans-winning prototype race car into a working X5 SUV.

To celebrate their win at the French round-the-clock classic BMW decided they needed to blend the heart and soul of the V12 LMR prototype, which was a development of the S70 V12 powerplant used in the epic McLaren F1 hypercar, and their new controversial four-wheel-drive SUV. The universe wasn’t quite ready to understand why a towering soccer mum tank needed such a fantastic engine, but the result was so good we didn’t really question it all that much. You could argue today’s mega-powered SUVs can trace their genesis back to this very concept car, actually.

With awesome BBS LM wheels, a six-speed manual transmission and big brakes from another M car BMW had Hans-Joachim Stuck throw the overpowered block of flats around the Nurburgring where he allegedly hit 192mph (309km/h) which is a lot faster than an ordinary X5 was capable of in those days. His time of 7min 50secs might not make headlines today but you also need to remember the R34 GT-R Skyline was brand new when the X5 Le Mans popped on the scene, while Subaru’s GC8 WRX still had another year on sale, the LS1 was only 2 years old and Limp Bizkit was still a thing. Yes, they were dark days.

BMW still have the concept car and take it out to show its wares. It needs to be heard at 11ty decibels as that uncorked V12 works its magic.