Ronnie Fieg built himself a BMW X5 that BMW never had the guts to make. The BMW Kith V10 X5 starts life as a 2000 E53 — the original X5, the one that proved a luxury SUV could actually be fun to drive — and ends up with a 500-horsepower V10 engine from the M5, a three-pedal manual gearbox and the factory all-wheel-drive system running underneath all of it. One car. Belongs to Fieg. Not for sale, not being replicated, not a preview of anything coming next from Kith or BMW.
Fieg runs Kith NYC, a streetwear and sneaker brand that’s become genuinely influential in New York’s fashion scene over the past decade. He’s worked with BMW before — the two built a limited-edition M4 Competition together that disappeared off shelves almost immediately. The BMW Kith V10 X5 is something different. This isn’t a collaboration with a production run attached. It’s a personal vehicle that happens to answer a question BMW’s own engineers probably discussed and then quietly shelved somewhere around 2004.
The Car BMW Should Have Built
Before the first X5 arrived in 1999, luxury SUV buyers had limited choices. Truck-based models handled rough terrain but beat passengers around on normal roads. Car-based options felt refined but gave up credibility the moment conditions got difficult. BMW’s E53 tried to split that difference — sporty enough on a good road, capable enough when things got messy. It worked well enough that every performance SUV sold today owes something to what the E53 demonstrated was possible.
BMW had the S85 sitting right there — a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V10, 500 horsepower, 9,000-rpm redline, the engine that went into the E60 M5 and E63 M6 — while the E53 X5 was still in production. Never happened. BMW never put it in. Fieg looked at that gap and built the BMW Kith V10 X5 to fill it.
What the Build Actually Involved
The 2000 X5 was stripped completely — not partially disassembled for the engine swap but taken down entirely, restored properly after 25 years of use, and then rebuilt from scratch with the upgrades. The S85 V10 in the BMW Kith V10 X5 isn’t running in factory specification. Fieg’s team fitted forged pistons and applied custom tuning on top of the base 500 horsepower, though they haven’t published a final output figure. The tachometer sitting in the dashboard — borrowed directly from an M5 — reads to 9,000 rpm and tells you everything you need to know about what this engine was designed to do when pushed.
The manual gearbox is the part of the BMW Kith V10 X5 that stops most people cold. BMW has never offered a manual transmission in any generation of the X5 — not the E53, not the E70 that followed, not anything since. Making a three-pedal manual work alongside the factory xDrive all-wheel-drive system required custom engineering that the team doesn’t discuss in detail publicly. It works. Driver controls every gear manually, power goes to all four wheels, and the whole package functions as a complete drivetrain rather than a cobbled-together compromise.
It Looks Like Nothing Happened to It
Walk up to the BMW Kith V10 X5 without knowing what it is and you’d probably assume it’s a very well-maintained original. The widebody kit, revised front end and rear aero treatment reference the BMW X5 Le Mans — a genuine factory one-off from the late 1990s where BMW’s motorsports division installed a V12 from the McLaren F1 into an E53 body, purely to see whether it was possible — but the reference is subtle enough that it reads as factory rather than aftermarket. Suspension sits lower than stock. Body is wider. Neither change looks modified. Both look like something BMW might have offered as a factory option if the product planning team had been feeling ambitious.
Inside the BMW Kith V10 X5 the restraint continues. The cabin looks like a clean original. No carbon fiber trim replacing the factory pieces. No custom stitching covered in Kith branding. No visible signs that anything has been touched, until you notice the M5’s tachometer with its 9,000-rpm sweep and the manual gear lever occupying the space where an automatic selector normally sits.
The X5 Le Mans Connection
BMW’s motorsports division built the X5 Le Mans as a prototype in the late 1990s — one vehicle, never sold, constructed to find out how much engine the E53 platform could actually accommodate. Their answer was a 627-horsepower V12 from the McLaren F1, which is the kind of answer that tends to end further questioning on the subject.
The BMW Kith V10 X5 follows the same thinking but arrives at a more usable conclusion. A V10 rather than a V12. A manual gearbox the Le Mans car never had. A result that looks close enough to stock that it could plausibly have come from BMW’s own special vehicles department rather than a private build program. The Le Mans proved the platform could take serious power. The BMW Kith V10 X5 proves the same point while remaining a car someone might actually want to drive regularly.
BMW Kith V10 X5 Full Specifications
| Detail | Specification |
|---|---|
| Base vehicle | 2000 BMW X5 E53 |
| Owner | Ronnie Fieg, Kith NYC |
| Engine | BMW S85 5.0-liter V10 |
| Factory engine output | 500 horsepower |
| Engine modifications | Forged pistons, custom tuning |
| Redline | 9,000 rpm |
| Tachometer source | BMW M5 |
| Gearbox | Three-pedal manual |
| Drivetrain | Factory xDrive AWD retained |
| Exterior changes | Widebody kit, revised front end, rear aero, lowered suspension |
| Design inspiration | BMW X5 Le Mans factory prototype |
| Interior | Factory appearance with M5 tachometer |
| Total units built | One |
| Previous Kith x BMW project | Limited-edition M4 Competition |
Frequently Asked Questions About the BMW Kith V10 X5
What exactly is the BMW Kith V10 X5?
Ronnie Fieg wanted an X5 with an M5 engine and a manual gearbox. BMW never built one so he built it himself. 2000 E53, torn down completely, V10 dropped in, three pedals where the automatic used to be, AWD still underneath it all. There’s one. He owns it.
Why is a manual gearbox significant on this car?
BMW has never sold an X5 with a manual gearbox across any generation. Getting a three-pedal manual to function alongside the factory AWD system in the BMW Kith V10 X5 required bespoke engineering. The result is a V10-powered SUV where the driver selects every gear manually — a combination that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
How much power does the BMW Kith V10 X5 actually make?
Stock S85 makes 500 horsepower. Forged pistons and custom tuning sit on top of that in this build. Fieg hasn’t put a number on it publicly — the 9,000-rpm tachometer on the dashboard probably tells the story better than any figure would.
What is the BMW X5 Le Mans that influenced this build?
In the late 1990s BMW’s motorsports team stuffed a 627-horsepower McLaren F1 V12 into an E53 X5 body. One car. Never sold. Built purely because someone at BMW wanted to see if it could be done. The BMW Kith V10 X5 borrows the Le Mans car’s front end and aero shapes — subtly enough that most people wouldn’t clock the reference.
Who is Ronnie Fieg and what is Kith NYC?
Fieg founded Kith NYC as a sneaker and streetwear brand that has grown into one of New York’s most recognized fashion labels. He’s a longtime BMW enthusiast — Kith previously worked with BMW on a limited-edition M4 Competition before the BMW Kith V10 X5 project.
Is the BMW Kith V10 X5 available to buy?
No. The BMW Kith V10 X5 belongs to Ronnie Fieg and was built as a personal vehicle. No additional examples are planned.
Why did Fieg choose the first-generation X5 as the base?
The E53 X5 has aged well visually and carries real automotive history behind it — it was among the first vehicles to prove a luxury SUV could drive with genuine sports car intent. The platform also has a direct connection to the X5 Le Mans, which influenced the BMW Kith V10 X5’s exterior design direction.
Could BMW have built something like this originally?
The S85 V10 was in production before the E53 retired in 2006, so the timing aligned. BMW chose not to pursue a V10 X5. The BMW Kith V10 X5 demonstrates what that vehicle might have looked like coming out of Munich’s M division rather than a private garage in New York.
The BMW Kith V10 X5 is the kind of build that makes you annoyed at BMW’s product planning team on Fieg’s behalf. A V10 that revs to 9,000 rpm, a manual gearbox BMW itself never offered in an X5, factory AWD still doing its job underneath all of it, and bodywork subtle enough that most people walking past it wouldn’t look twice. BMW had everything needed to build this car before 2006. They didn’t. One private builder in New York did, and the result looks like it came from the factory anyway.
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