The Project X Story: Chapter I, It Begins

15 Nov The Project X Story: Chapter I, It Begins

Since we never gave you a full build thread for Project X, a.k.a. Dick Cook’s E53 X5, let’s do that now.

Now that winter’s coming back into full swing, we were reminded that we’d never really made a fully fleshed-out, proper build thread for the X5. We were so wrapped up in secrecy at that point, that we never really got to show you many of the cool mid-construction shots of the X5 as it was being built by hand at FMU headquarters. After the front bumper began construction, we put a moratorium on all Project X content, preferring to show the big pieces during its big reveal at Tuner Galleria and MFest. But those are almost a year behind us, so let’s get to showing you everything we couldn’t. In true build thread form, let’s start all the way back at the beginning, shall we?

Project X, before we gave it that name, wasn’t even our car to begin with. Rather, it was a wrecked X5 brought in by a customer with the goal of fixing it and giving it back to the owner. Well, as time went on, the customer gave us the car, but disappeared shortly thereafter. After plenty of time has passed, and after plenty of attempts to get a hold of the owner, we were left with one choice – put a mechanic’s lien on it. So we did, and that’s how we ended up owning this Bavarian beast.

Ideas had been swirling in our head ever since we took possession of the car. We knew one thing from the outset – it wasn’t going to stay stock. But the second question was a bit trickier – what were we going to do with it? After plenty of thought had been given to the subject, we settled on creating a vehicle that oozed the aesthetic of urban assault, with the typical Fluid goal of launching fireballs. So we started doing some drawings and got to work.

The wheels and tires were the first addition that took almost no time to settle on. In searching for the most aggressive SUV setup we could, we settled on Cragar’s steel wheels for that heavy-duty steelie look, and a set of Dick Cepek tires. These aren’t your normal tires – they are covered in skulls and bones, which doesn’t give off a very happy-go-lucky, take-your-kids-to-soccer aesthetic that’s typical of a normal X5.

From there, we needed to set the X5 up such that the tire clearance wasn’t a problem. Instead of trying to find a kit on the internet, we made our own custom lift kit for the X5’s OE suspension setup. Featuring a billet aluminum set of spacers, it lifted up the X5 between 1 and 2 inches, providing the clearance we needed.

Finally, we made the exhaust for it. As with all our other custom setups, this featured nothing but 304 stainless steel and TIG welding. The setup is relatively large, with the midsection running 3” pipes up to the rear, where we expand to 4” at the tips. We went with a different routing system, as well, choosing to exit the pipes through the rear tow hook panel on the rear bumper. Sometimes it’s nice being able to showcase your craftsmanship front and center. Plus, the two tips directly next to one another could provide for much better fireballing.

Well, that about sums up our first post on the build thread. There are 8 parts in total, so 7 more are on the way!