The 240-mph McLaren F1 is considered one of the greatest cars of all time. It is perhaps the enthusiast’s most coveted machine, still being built 28 years later, and it is only available to the ultra-rich. But what you may not know is that there is an even rarer vehicle that uses one of the most important parts of the F1: its engine.
This vehicle is none other than the BMW X5 Le Mans. Yes, it has the McLaren BMW V12 under the hood, it sounds like an F1 car, and it’s an SUV.
The BMW X5 Le Mans is the relatively little-known forefather of the performance SUVs from BMW. The prototype, built in 2000, packed a punch like no other freight forwarder on the planet thanks to its 6.1-liter V12 wrapped in carbon fiber. The device sent more than 700 horsepower to a rear-wheel drive, had a lightning-fast time from zero to 60 of just 4.7 seconds and could climb up to 193 mph. This unusual combination of speed and utility undoubtedly contributed to BMW executives swooning into the green light of the more humble production-ready version of the car, the X5 M, for release almost a decade later.
Of course, this car didn’t get the S70 / 2 V12 from F1.
After developing this engine for McLaren, BMW engineers built a more powerful variant called the S70 / 3. Eventually, BMW ended up doing an iteration known as the P75. The “P” designates it as a racing engine in the company’s line-up. That platform would ultimately power the V12 LM and V12 LMR Le Mans prototypes, all of which have the McLaren F1 legacy in their veins.
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