V12 5 Series Anyone?

By Jonathon Klein - October 28, 2015

One of the great failures for BMW was the 8 Series. A modern, good-looking, big touring coupe powered either by a v8 or V12 motor. In its time, it just couldn’t compete with the likes of Aston Martin or Mercedes, and thus it’s been relegated to the history books as a total failure. Personally speaking, I think the 8 Series is awesome looking both inside and out, and with a few minor upgrades and updates, could potentially be one of the coolest used cars out there.

However, there are those that don’t think so, who think the E34 5 Series from the same time period is way cooler. Those individuals are wrong, but for the sake of argument, let’s just say they’re right for the moment. But even if they are right, how do you modify one that isn’t just another M5 V8 swap? Easy, you look back at the V12 8 Series and pull that engine out.

What you see here is a swap done by Koala Motorsports in Cleveland, Ohio. It uses the 5-liter V12 motor out of the 8 Series, and makes around 300 horsepower and the same amount of torque. Not much, but when you read the rest of the things done to this project, you’ll be ready to pony up the $7,000 the seller is looking for on Craigslist.

What do you guys thinks? Is this thing cool? Or is it just a time-bomb waiting to explode?