How A $1200 BMW X5 From Ohio Became The Wildest Off-Roader In Los Angeles

The BMW X5 is generally a restrained luxury SUV that's designed to haul your kids to soccer practice, but custom fabricator Mike Day turned his into a fire-breathing off-road monster that will melt your kid's faces off, while also hauling them to soccer practice. With a 550-horsepower built LS engine, Ford Super Duty axles, huge Bilstein off-road suspension, and several months' worth of one-off fab work, this isn't your average mall crawler. I mean, it'll definitely still crawl to the mall as Mike uses it as a daily driver in Los Angeles traffic, but it's also really good at doing off roading stuff. There's never been an X5 like it, and there probably never will be again. 

This X5 had lived a long and rugged life in Ohio before Mike Day found it for $1,200. With gobs of miles and rusty sheet metal, it was resigned to its life as a beater. Somehow, Mike just kind of fell in love with the truck and decided to not only save it, but give it about twenty doses of the Captain America super soldier serum. There's very little BMW still left in this truck, and the end result is a blend between your aunt's unassuming luxury SUV and a trophy truck. If you're not on the hype train for this truly wild build, you're missing out. 

Mike recently moved out west to work more closely with his pals at BigTime, and he brought his ridiculous X5 with him. I can't imagine trying to daily-drive this big pig in Los Angeles (though it's probably not any larger than the big pickup trucks that dominate American sales these days), but somehow he makes it work. When you have this much time and effort wrapped up in a machine, it's probably pretty dang hard to walk away from. You'll deal with some difficult days in traffic to continue to drive the car you put together with your own two hands and an overworked welder. 

Mike and Zach took the big X5 out for an off-roading day at the iconic Johnson Valley ORV trails and sand dunes (home to the Mad-Max event known as King of the Hammers) to see what the truck is actually good at. Street driving isn't this truck's forte, despite it serving daily driver duty. Get it out on the big rocky trails, however, and it's seriously in its element. There are really three things you need to make off roading easier, and those are ground clearance, grip, and power, and this X5 has all of those in spades. Even driving trails that would make the average off-roader back out, Mike is more than happy to keep powering through. 

"Look at that thing, like a ship in the ocean, just bobbling along," says Zach Jobe, watching from the outside. 

In an act of absolute faith, trusting wholly in Mike's skills in building this truck, four guys headed out for an off-road journey in the X5 without a backup vehicle. Even with a little wall crawling and rock bouncing, it seems like there wasn't much to worry about. Not only did the truck make it in one piece, but it did it in mid-2000s comfort. That's pretty radical, if you ask me. 

I've travelled in the same circles as Mr. Day for a few years. I've broke bread with him, we have several mutual friends, he's worked on a couple of my vehicles, and we both spent time working at ECS Tuning. He's a good dude, proper old-school midwest nice, and an incredibly competent fabricator, as should be obvious from this wild machine. It's nice to see him getting some airtime for his bonkers machines, and I can't wait to see what comes next for him and the BigTime crew.