The “off-road caricature car” look is so hot right now you could pretty much take a wood-paneled PT Cruiser, slap some tractor tires and a spacer lift under it, show up at SEMA and watch the Instagram likes roll in. But as far as bullshit builds go, this filthy perversion of a BMW is actually pretty righteous.
This car, an early (round-taillight) BMW 2002 is actually an E30 325iX with a body swap. Add some custom control arms, very silly tires, snorkel, requisite roof rack and we’ve got ourselves a qualified extra for the next Mad Max movie!
Somewhat ironically this thing was actually built by BMW restoration experts at Sin City BMW, which generally focuses on original-style and high-performance builds. This AWD off-road animal is a little out of the company’s wheelhouse but seems to have come out pretty well perfectly.
The body is in the optimal state of disrepair for this style—straight, but tired looking. This is what you often hear referred to as “patina.”
Sin City BMW’s Chris Willett calls the car the “X2,” I guess likening it to BMW’s X-Series SUVs with which it has pretty much nothing in common.
It’s been around for a few years time, and in fact had a part in a weird short movie with a surprisingly awesome car chase back in 2013 which you can watch right here:
BMW Films eat your heart out, am I right?
Speedhunters also got some nice photos of the car over the summer, where they found out that the idea for the Bimmer’s build started as a joke (because of course) but evolved into, well, a joke still but one that’s actually drivable.
That gallery actually documents the build with a little more detail than the slideshow above, but I couldn’t resist sharing this thing just in case any of you jabronis hadn’t seen it.
I might have to drop Mr. Willett a line next time I’m in Vegas and take a look at this thing myself. Then we’ll sniff out some specifics about how the thing actually works. That said, it doesn’t look like there’s much to it beyond a fresh body, custom mounting, home-made control arms and maybe a wheel spacer kit made from horizontal trash cans. Simple!