You Can Shoot This BMW X5 With An AK-47 And Drive It Away
The 2015 BMW X5 Security Plus, set to be revealed at the Moscow Auto Show later this month, is the next iteration of the company's armored SUV line. Sure looks like a standard X5, but all the body panels and windows have all been replaced with a variety BMW claims is "AK-47 proof."
Brochure says "the risk of armed violence – and in particular, attack with automatic weapons like the AK-47 – is a fact of everyday life for certain customers."
Yikes. I might be thinking about using my "armored SUV" money to move to a friendlier neighborhood, but I'm guessing BMW is catering to those who get "pulled in for one last job," just when they thought they got out of the mafia politics? for good.
Body panels of the the X5 Security Plus have been replaced with steel armor, which also covers up gaps between doors. The windows are "a security glass laminate with a polycarbonate coating on the inside to prevent spalling (breaking into tiny pieces)."
Great care was taken to retain the shape of the regular X5, not just for style, but to let BMW keep the same airbag configuration and interior dimensions.
All that is worth a rating of VR (Vehicle Resistance) 6 on the BRV 2009 scale, which goes from VR1 (a pizza box taped to the window, probably) to VR10 (a Schwerer Panzerjäger I guess?)
Basically VR6 means the 2015 X5 Security Plus can withstand "projectiles from military weapons that travel twice as fast as bullets fired from a revolver. In addition... a defense against shrapnel from hand grenades and other explosives.
That's an upgrade from the outgoing factory-armored X5, which is only rated to VR4.
To accommodate the extra weight of all that ass-kicking protection (how much that is exactly, BMW will not specify), the chassis has been reinforced and stability control re-calibrated.
The vehicle is also offered with tidily integrated LED flashing police-style lights, to scatter civilians who might be in the way of the car chases you're planning on hosting with your new armored X5.
Images: BMW