Among all of today’s full-size luxury SUV models, few are as off-road capable right off the showroom floor as BMW’s X5. Recognizing this, renowned automotive concept artist Carlos “colorsponge” Pecino has opted to take the Bavarian-built model and transform the fourth-gen X5 into a hardcore desert racer.
Starting with a 3D model of a new G05 X5, the Spanish-born, London-based artist has completely reworked the vehicle’s design, retaining some of the body’s shell and little else. Now sporting an exoskeleton-style roof, the X5 rides on a lifted suspension setup stacked atop a custom-designed set of off-road-specific wheels shod in BFG rubber. Massively flared fenders, fore and aft, now provide the necessary space to accommodate the larger wheels and tires and their increased suspension travel.
The exterior has also been cloaked in a one-off, multi-tone matte livery with subtle M Racing logos while the inside has received a full roll-cage, race seats, and a set of LED lightbars set at the top of the windshield. The build also boasts a side-exiting exhaust setup, quick-release body fasteners, custom front and rear steel bumpers, LED strip headlights set into the X5’s stock housings, an integrated lightbar built into a mini front splitter, and a full-sized spare wheel that now lives where the luxury SUV’s back seats once were.
And while this is just the latest addition to Carlos Pecino and Ash Thorp’s Make Haste Corp (M.H.C.) project, the pair plan on debuting another half-dozen renders before the series’ completion. Be sure to check both Thorp’s and colorsponge’s social media channels for the M.H.C. project’s final installments over the coming months.
