Custom Engineering

For the Serious Driver

BMW X5 - Heavyweight

The E53 X5 is a damn good car and exceptional value as a used buy – you can pick up 4.4 Sports for under £7000. Trouble is, it’s never been a particularly involving drive. BMW did an amazing job in creating a two-tonne SAV that wasn’t all at sea when shown a twisty road, but it was still a long way from being the car of choice when you wanted to go for a blast. The 4.6 and 4.8iS added more power and went some way to sharpen up the handling though BMW hadn’t managed to completely overcome the E53’s shortcomings. But now it looks like salvation may finally be at hand, thanks to PhoenixMotorsport. Owner Gerry Speechley reckons the company’s X5 Handling Pack transforms the big 4x4 and turns it into a car that you want to go and drive. Too good to be true? Let’s find out. While there are undoubtedly some people who will take their X5’s into the wilderness, the vast majority of owners bought them because they like the tough looks, the security of four-wheel drive and the comfort and practicality; they couldn’t care less about the X5’s off-road abilities. That’s a good thing, because in order to make the X5 handle like a road car, everything that BMW fitted to ensure the car wouldn’t get stuck when the going go rough, has to be removed and replaced. The main problems with the X5 are its weight, soft suspension, and the fact that it’s an extremely top-heavy vehicle. So the Phoenix handling modifications focus on reducing body roll and keeping the 4x4’s weight in check. The suspension upgrades are available in five separate stages, although you’ll get the biggest benefit, and save some money, if you opt for one of the kits. Stage 1 takes care of the springs – these have been made to PhoenixMotorsport’s exact specifications in terms of spring rate and ride height, to ensure that body control is improved without spoiling the ride. Seeing as the X5 has self-leveling suspension at the rear only, a pair of springs are needed for the front, which lower the car by 35mm (25mm with the camber plates we’ll come to in a moment) and the self-leveling suspension lowers the rear by the same amount to match the front. Stage 2 offers something you seldom see, and that’s camber plates. These laser-cut, alloy plates increase negative camber at the front slightly which reduces understeer and improves steering response as well as improving tyre wear. Stage 3 replaces the standard anti-roll bars with much thicker items complete with polyurethane bushes, further helping to reduce body roll. Stage 4 is optional, as it involves replacing the standard shock absorbers with high performance Bilstein items and it’s not really worth the outlay on a low mileage car. The company assesses each car on an individual basis but strongly recommends the Bilsteins for those that have covered over 75,000 miles and considers them essential for X5’s with more than 100,000 miles on the clock. The final stage is a strut brace and while normally it wouldn’t be that essential, the uprated suspension components put a lot more strain on the X5’s chassis, so the brace helps to keep everything in check.

The Phoenix X5 has also been fitted with the company’s optional polyurethane thrust arm bushes and rear subframe bushes, both of which are weak spots in the car’s suspension; it makes sense to change them whilst the suspension is off the car. This X5 also boasts adjustable anti-roll bar drop-links, that compensate for the weight of the driver in the car, ensuring it has a neutral balance when going into a corner, further improving handling.

During everyday driving you don’t really notice the suspension modifications, which is exactly what you want, as it means they don’t spoil the X5. The ride is a little stiffer, though the 20-inch 4.8iS wheels fitted to this example are partly to blame – even when combined with the stiffer springs, it’s still comfortable and it certainly doesn’t feel any less compliant than any other X5 fitted with big wheels. So far, so normal. But Gerry really wants me to give the car a proper evaluation and we head to a stretch of road running through woodland that is perfect. It’s a fast, undulating piece of tarmac, one long series of comers that will give the X5 a real workout and show up any shortcomings in the PhoenixMotorsport setup. I drive the section a couple of times to get a feel for it, then take the X5 and hurl it down the road, determined to push it to its absolute limits, all in the name of science, of course.

Simply put, the X5 is incredible. It doesn’t just handle well for an X5; it handles well full-stop. The transformation is absolute and the big, heavy 4x4 feels like a sports saloon. It responds instantly to steering input, changing direction like you wouldn’t believe and the lack of body roll will blow you away – there’s virtually none. No wallow, no lurching, just incredible body control that keeps the X5 flat during Even the most extreme cornering. Grip from those supercar-wide tyres is prodigious, allowing you to pitch the X5 into corners at serious speed knowing that it’s not going to relinquish its hold on the tarmac, while the massive anti-roll bars work hard to keep understeer in check.

I’ve never driven any X5 that feels like this, it’s simply sensational – you can throw it around like a hot hatch and it takes in its stride whatever you and the road can throw at. Only when you go barreling into a corner at silly speed does understeer intrude, but even then a quick lift tucks the nose in and, if you’re really committed, will get the rear involved. Then all you have to do is plant it, let the xDrive System do its thing and the X5 slingshots out of the corner. It’s fantastic, and now the sort of car you’d want to take out for a Sunday afternoon B-road blast.

Unfortunately, despite this X5 boasting a set of PhoenixMotorsport cross-drilled discs, stainless hoses and DOT5.1 fluid, the brakes remain the car’s sole weak point. Repeated high speed runs and heavy braking prove too much for them on this occasion and I eventually run out of brakes, the pedal dropping to the floor as I slow to turn the car around for another run. They’re much better than they could handle. You do have to be trying very hard to get them to wilt like this, however.

If you’ve always fancied an X5 but been put off by the fact that it’s not really a driver’s car, the PhoenixMotorsport Handling Pack changes all that. At £1370 for the same setup as the X5, it’s not expensive when you realise just how much work has gone into developing the components and just how big a difference it makes. In fact, it’s fair to say that it’s a bit of a bargain.

CONTACT:
PhoenixMotorsport:
Gerry Speechley
Tel: 01276 27711
Web: Phoenixmotorsport.co.uk