While the association between an SUV, be it the sporty BMW X5, and Le Mans should never have happened, German engineers pulled it off just for laughs. That’s how the X5 Le Mans was born, with a little help from a fire-breathing V-12.

Only in the X5, power output went beyond 700 horsepower, while the race car “only” had 580 horses at its disposal due to the mandatory air intake limiters.

Other than the massive power output, the X5 Le Mans cranked out 720 Newton-meters of torque (that’s about 530 pound-feet) and needed just 4.7 seconds to reach 100 kph (62 mph) from a standstill. The official top speed was 278 kph (173 mph), but race driver Hans-Joachim Stuck drove the X5 LM without rear seats and managed to hit 311 kph (193 mph).

BMW X5 Le Mans specifications

Car and Driver wrote back in 2001 that making the engine swap was easier than expected. The donor car’s engine – a 4.4-liter V-8 – was wider and longer than the V-12, so the latter was easily mounted under the hood. However, it was heavier (by 176 pounds) and it needed a 50-percent larger cooling area. To solve the need for better airflow, BMW’s engineers cut holes in the front bumper and hood.

Even more interesting is that initially, BMW wanted to plonk the V-10 from Ralf Schumacher’s Williams-BMW F1 car inside the X5. That plan was dropped since the stock transmission couldn’t deal with an 18,000-rpm redline. Speaking of the gearbox, the X5 LM ended up with a twin-plate racing clutch and the transmission (six speeds, manual!) of an 8 Series coupe. A pair of 20-inch BBS wheels replaced the stock set and the suspension was lowered by 30 mm.

In a way, the audacious BMW X5 LM was a sample of what BMW could do with a high-riding SUV in terms of performance. We can therefore say that the X5 LM paved the way for the X5 M and had the task of preparing people for the madness that was about to come.