Esoteric Edition BMW F85 X5M - Diary of how to build the ultimate X5M
#1
12-07-2016 | 01:27 PM
Esoteric Edition BMW F85 X5M - Diary of how to build the ultimate X5M
es·o·ter·ic [es-uh-ter-ik]
adjective
1. understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest; recondite: poetry full of esoteric allusions.
2. belonging to the select few.
3. private; secret; confidential.
When I think of Esoteric, the first word that comes to mind is perfection. I've had the pleasure of knowing these guys for some time now, and the level of detail and effort that they put into just the smallest things amazes me. Of course this is no surprise because they're one of the best auto detailing companies in the world, but the level of professionalism, customer support and customer care are phenomenal. You can see all of this and more on this thread - a detailed account of Esoteric's project 2017 X5M.
ESOTERIC Edition BMW F85 X5M
No matter how many years I’ve been writing articles like this one, I continually struggle with the direction that I present to the readers. After all, the readers are ultimately the main focus here…not the vehicle, nor the work that we have done. But having said that, I as the author, and as the person behind the work itself, have an obligation to present a high level of automotive detailing to the world in such a manner so that everybody from the automotive / detailing enthusiast, all the way up to the seasoned detailing professional can gain insight, knowledge, and ultimately inspiration as it relates to both detailing and passion in automobiles.
So having said all of that, I’m back to the decision making process on how to present the ESOTERIC Edition BMW F85 X5M. Sure, there are plenty of “details” to cover on the vehicle itself, what it represents, and what all we’ve done to it. By highlighting all of our products and processes, I will undoubtedly provide insight to how and why we did the customization we did. Likewise, readers will walk away with a higher level of knowledge on what it takes to make a vehicle look so amazing. But by presenting a laundry list of products and services, did I actually inspire others to raise their game as it relates to automotive detailing. Or more importantly, did I accomplish the biggest goal, which is to share our passion (obsession?) in automobiles, or to ignite the automotive passion in the readers?
What ESOTERIC Edition represents is producing the best looking example of a
vehicle through painstaking finishing processes, combined with tasteful
customization and modifications.
vehicle through painstaking finishing processes, combined with tasteful
customization and modifications.
ESOTERIC Edition BMW F85 X5M. Passion in Finishing…
What ESOTERIC Edition represents is producing the best looking example of a vehicle through painstaking finishing processes, combined with tasteful customization and modifications. Granted, we always strive to produce a turnkey solution for both show-car applications and track day performance, but the emphasis will always be with how much better we can make it look…the Finishing. Anybody can bolt on some wheels and an exhaust, but the difference is in how the paint looks, and how it all comes together in the end.
When researching the current market of potential project vehicles, we wanted something that had leading performance combined with practicality. Additionally, it had to be within a certain price range so that the vehicle and brand would resonate with a larger portion of the market. That criteria narrowed the field down pretty quickly, and after an impromptu staff meeting, we decided that the BMW F85 X5M ticked all of our boxes.
For those who might not be as familiar with BMW’s “M” moniker, it’s their performance division that produces higher spec’d vehicles than the standard offering. M models have higher horsepower, upgraded suspension, and nicer interiors…higher performing at all levels.
With the X5M in particular, it has a quite impressive list of features and performance figures. In stock form, the 4.4L twin-turbo produces a factory rated 567 (647 measured) horsepower and 553 (633 measured) pounds of torque. With this, it accelerates this big beast from 0-60mph in 4 seconds flat! That’s hauling ***…particularly with such a large vehicle. And to stop it, the X5M comes equipped with massive Brembo calipers. The X5M isn’t just about straight line speed either. As the editors at Road and Track found out, it will run with the M2 at the track…a HUGE accomplishment given the size of the X5M, and the track prowess of the M2.
The Gameplan for our BMW F85 X5M…
We placed our custom order for the X5M through our longtime friends at Kelly BMW here in Columbus, then we proceeded to plan out the build and customization. The team here at ESOTERIC is typically on the same page when it comes to styling and finishing options / creation, and the X5M project was no different. We spec’d everything out, placed our orders, and waited a short month for our new X5M to arrive from the factory.
The plan was pretty straightforward, and included the following:
- Perform an insane amount of paint polishing and refinement
- Wrap all critical areas of the car in SunTek paint protection film
- Apply the latest protective coatings from KAMIKAZE COLLECTION
- Install HRE wheels
- Install KW Suspension coilovers
- Install Akrapovic Exhaust System
- Install Dinantronics Performance Tuner
- Add carbon fiber pieces, tint windows, etc.
Now that our new F85 X5M arrived, it was time to get to work!
Paint Polishing
I’ll start off with the big hitter first…paint polishing! Why do I call it the big hitter? Because nothing else makes as much of a difference in the Finishing of the car, or the passionate reaction to the visual aspect of it as does (proper) paint polishing. It’s not even worth arguing…it’s fact.
The looks of the paint, and the quality and clarity of the reflections is what separates a good looking vehicle from a great looking one. All things being equal, the car with the best looking paint wins. Period.
BMW makes amazing vehicles, there’s no arguing that. But when it comes to their paint, let’s just say that there’s plenty of room for improvement. This isn’t a knock against BMW, because most automotive manufacturers leave a lot on the table when it comes to the finished product with paint (ESOTERIC built itself around correcting and perfecting Ferrari paint…so there you go!).
When we take a close look at the paint on our BMW (and most cars), you will see that it has a lot of orange peel (waviness in the paint that looks like the surface of an orange) and fine texture. The reason this is bad is because it distorts and clouds the reflective images in the paint. The more of this that is present, the more “lifeless” the paint looks. But when the paint has been thoroughly and properly polished, it has a very high level of clarity and reflectivity, and the paint glows by comparison.
OEM paint:
With paint polishing, there are many levels that you can go with…from a light machine polish, to multi-stage paint correction, to texture removal, and all the way up to leveling to reduce or remove orange peel. Most vehicles that we (and other detailers) work on would fall into that light machine polish and multi-stage paint correction categories. When done properly, either of these will create the greatest looking paint most customers / enthusiasts have ever seen. And for most cars and people, there’s no need to go a higher level.
But when we’re talking about the most special vehicles, or the most passionate (obsessive) car owners, we have the ability to go even higher to extract the best look and finish that is possible. Our texture removal process (AKA our Crystal Series) is very popular with the Corvette crowd, and it is the highest level of paint correction and refinement that we “officially” offer. But for the ESOTERIC Edition cars that we build for customers and ourselves, we reserve one higher level that represents the best look in paint that you can achieve, all while preserving as much of the paint as we can (NO sanding involved!). We do not officially offer this service as a standalone option because quite frankly, it is very time consuming, and therefore very expensive.
Granted, one could simply sand down the finish to be flat, then take 3-4 polishing steps to refine it, but that process easily removes more material than is recommended over the life of the car. And with auto manufacturers painting their cars thinner and thinner all of the time, it makes that process even more dangerous and irresponsible.
Our X5M had pretty thin paint, which made for an even greater challenge. There’s a very fine line with removing enough material to reduce orange peel and texture, and simply going too far and risking future issues with the paint. Given this, it makes the process more time consuming and laborious. There’s no quick way or short-cut to proper paint refinement…just plan to invest an insane amount of time to get it looking right.
Armed with a lot of Rupes polishers, pads, compounds, and polishes, along with our precision measuring devices with the Rhopoint DOI (Distinctness Of Image) meter and the DeFelsko 200/B Advance paint thickness gauge, we proceeded to develop a system that would work best for the Carbon Black OEM paint on our X5M.
If you take a look at this first photo, it shows just how much orange peel and texture is in the finish. The overhead lights in our shop hardly have any clarity in the reflection. This shot was taken with a macro lens on a tripod, then the camera kept in the exact same position / settings for our “after shot”.
Now take a look at the photo of the exact same area after we did our polishing processes (4-5 polishing steps). The overhead light reflection has a tremendous amount of definition to it, the surface is much more level, and there’s far greater clarity in the colored metallic flake in the paint itself. Now imagine that level of definition and clarity increase over the entire vehicle and you can easily understand why this is touted as the best looking, customized BMW F85 X5M in existence!
The entire crew worked on the X5M for (many) days to fully refine the finish on our X5M…
And when I say we were polishing for days, I mean exactly that! The first stage, which included paint polishing, paint protection film, and coating applications took 10 days for the 3 of us to complete. 10 days!
So after all of this polishing, I wanted to show you a few direct before and after photos so you can get a really good feel for just how much more clarity in reflection we got in the X5M. Be sure to click on the photos to bring up larger images…
Before:
After…
Before:
After…
SunTek Paint Protection Film (PPF) Installation
What’s the point in having all of that beautifully polished paint, just to have it get beaten up by rock chips in the critical areas? We have a big investment here, both in the X5M itself, and the work we are doing to it, so PPF helps us maintain that investment so it holds value (and looks) into the future. Rock chips, and other pitting in the paint caused by hitting debris can make a vehicle look really bad in a short period of time. With most of our high end details, we add full front end PPF, along with rocker panels and rear wheel impact areas. This is where cars take the most beating, so it’s very important to protect them accordingly.
PPF is installed after all of the polishing has been completed. Once that is done, we give the vehicle a bath to ensure that there are no contaminants that can get caught under the film.
As you can see, we have completely disassembled the bumper / front end of our X5M so that we can do a full custom PPF installation. This is not something we do for “every day” PPF installs, but when a customer is looking for the best, we can offer that as well to ensure that there are as few visible film seams as possible.
With it all apart and cleaned up, Dan can now proceed with the multi-day project of SunTek PPF installation. He did the full front end, rocker panels / lower doors, headlights, fender flares, rear wheel impact area, mirrors, and entire roof.
We removed the fender flares so that the PPF could be fully wrapped…this way you can’t even tell that there’s any film on them. For pieces like these, you need to be creative on how you wrap them. We zip-tied these to a wire rack to hold them in place!
Here Dan is installing a matte version of the PPF to the roof. We did this to customize the look a bit. The matte of the roof is a nice contrast to the high gloss of the rest of the vehicle. You’ll also notice our drone flying around the X5M as we do some recording for a video (yeah…we’re pretty geeked out that way!).
In addition to applying the matte film to the roof, we also applied it to the center, horizontal structure on the front bumper. It helps to create a different look on the front end, and it ties together with the matte roof. Here is a photo of when it was all put back together.
HRE Wheels
When it comes to custom forged wheels, HRE is king. They have been around since 1978, and their design, development, and manufacturing is all done in their San Diego (Vista) headquarters. When you step into the realm of HRE, you’re getting a wheel that has gone through an extensive amount of engineering. Given their dedication to engineering the finest and safest wheels available, it’s no surprise that they meet the TUV Quality Verification. For those unfamiliar with this, the TUV Verified Quality Management System is the rarest and strictest quality and engineering status in the wheel industry. HRE is one of only very few wheel manufacturers worldwide to receive this quality verification.
And equally as important…they look absolutely amazing!
Since we have such a good relationship with the HRE crew, we decided to have some fun with this project by flying out to San Diego to visit them while our wheels were being made. All of the forged series HRE Wheels are custom made to order, which typically takes 4-6 weeks. So given that, we had to plan our trip accordingly to make it just in time.
For the BMW F85 X5M project, we wanted to go with something new and something different. Since the latest P2 Series was just released, we knew that it had to be one of those styles in particular. After speaking with Jurrian and Jorge at HRE, we found out that they had not yet made a set of P204’s for the X5M, so our decision was made! We were going to have the very first set of HRE P204 wheels in the world made for our project car.
Despite the fact that the P204’s on our BMW look exactly the same as the ones for a Ferrari 488 (as seen in their gallery page), they are actually quite different. Our X5M is heavy, it has gobs of horsepower and torque, and there are heavy braking loads put on the wheels as well. With this, different forgings need to be used along with revised engineering. You do not want to put wheels on a vehicle like this that are not engineered for the demands of this particular application!
Once we arrived in San Diego, we received a personalized tour and technical briefing from Patrick Moran, who is the Creative Director at HRE. As with the rest of the staff at HRE, Patrick is very passionate about the company and the products.
Our P204 in Brushed Dark Clear started out as a solid forging, then it was milled to this blank:
At this point, it gets loaded into the CNC machine where it will start to take shape as a finished P204 wheel:
Here’s after the first rough cut…very exciting to see it take shape!
After the machining stages were finished, the wheels go to the finishing department where they give it the optional brushed look, then off to the powder coating department for a dark clear finish. Watching the entire process from station to station was very informative, and you quickly get an appreciation why the HRE Wheels cost what they do!
And like magic, our P204 wheels in Brushed Dark Clear arrived safely at our shop a few weeks later:
While the OEM BMW wheels were big, we decided to go bigger! Our HRE’s are 22″ x 10.5″ on the front, and 22″ x 12″ on the rear, which translates into a 335 rear tire, and a 295 front tire. To put it into perspective, that’s the same width as on our Z06 Corvette. Another key feature with the HRE Wheels is that they design their applications with greater offset, so that even with the same size wheels as stock, they fill out the wheel wells better, thus providing a more aggressive stance.
Once the wheels were in, we applied 2 coats of KAMIKAZE’s new Stance Rim Coat for protection. German cars produce a lot of brake dust, so it just makes sense to protect the wheels (especially when they are this expensive) and make maintenance cleanup much easier. And with the new rim coating, we have never tested or applied an easier to use formula…game changer indeed.
Now throw on a brand new set of Pirelli tires and we’re all set to go!
KW Suspension V3 Coilovers
Our X5M was engineered with high performance for both the street and track, which means that the stock suspension is more than capable. But since we’re in the business of creating the best Finished cars in the market, it only made sense for us to upgrade the suspension courtesy of KW. Based out of Germany, KW Suspension is one of the largest aftermarket manufacturer of sports suspensions in the world.
Our suspension goals for our X5M was to increase handling performance for spirited street driving, and track days at our favorite track: Mid Ohio Sports Car Course just up the road from ESOTERIC. Our cars are always set up in such a way that they will win at car shows, and perform quite well on the track as well. And for our corporate use, we don’t just sit back and look at our cars…we drive them the way they were intended to be driven.
So with the KW Suspension, we opted for the Variant 3 (V3) coilovers with adjustable rebound and compression damping. In addition to adjustability for street / track setup, they also provide you with a height range so that we could (safely) lower the X5M to give it a more aggressive stance. For our height adjustment, we initially set the suspension at a height above the max amount for lowering so that we could allow it to settle in after a while. After a few months of settling, we will go back and make any adjustments necessary to get the aggressive look that comes with the full drop. If you simply put the suspension at max drop out of the box, then it will most likely go beyond the max recommended level after everything settles. For our X5M, we can lower it a max of 1.9″ in the front, and .9″ in the rear.
Akrapovic Exhaust System
Earlier I spoke of automotive passion as it relates to the visual aspect of the vehicle (styling and finishing). But one that also comes into play is the sound that it makes…it’s kind of the heart and soul of the vehicle. Just go to any car show and watch the faces of people when a Lamborghini fires up, or the sound of an old-school hot rod. People love to hear the rumble!
And fortunately for those of us who love to hear the sweet music that a car with an aftermarket exhaust system makes, there’s Akrapovic! Based out of Slovenia, Akrapovic designs and manufactures some of the best looking, best performing, and best sounding exhaust system in both the automotive and motorcycle industries. Those who have seen and heard the Akrapovic system on our Z06 Corvette know exactly what I am talking about…beautifully finished in Titanium and Carbon Fiber, with the most amazing sound.
What’s different about Akrapovic is that they actually have a full sound engineering team that works on each and every exhaust system that they develop. Not only do they set out to design a signature Akrapovic sound, but they also engineer the sound of an exhaust to go along with the personality of the vehicle. On our Z06 for instance, that is an in-your-face kind of car, therefore it calls for an obnoxious bark out of the exhaust system. But with our BMW, that same sound wouldn’t fit in. It’s more subtle and refined sounding, and it is also a bit quieter as well. But when you get into the throttle, it really comes to life and has a very distinct exhaust note to it.
Our Evolution Titanium system came with beautifully finished carbon fiber and Titanium exhaust tips, and weighed a whopping 33 lbs. less than the stock system. And since we also purchased the optional Akrapovic carbon fiber rear diffuser, the two pieces match up perfectly!
Here we are dropping the massive, 1-piece stock exhaust system in favor of the 3-piece Titanium Akrapovic system.
Final thoughts, and BMW F85 X5M image gallery!
This was a very long process, and a long article as well (thanks to those who read through the entire piece!).
As I stated at the beginning of this article, what drives our passion in vehicles are the styling and the finishing aspects of them. Take an already great looking vehicle, then add tasteful finishing touches, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to create an automobile that stimulates our visual senses and promotes that “strong and barely controllable emotion” that defines passion.
With our ESOTERIC Edition BMW F85 X5M, our goal was to create the best looking, customized version of it in existence…a vehicle that completely draws people in. It also needed to be much more than the cookie-cutter version of customized vehicles that are so common today (wheels, exhaust, tinted windows…done!).
With all of the efforts that we put into our X5M…the passion…there’s no doubt that we accomplished our goal of creating the best looking example that you will find. Anywhere!
Believe it or not, this article was edited down! If you'd like to read the full article, check out all the photos and accounts of Esoteric and their X5M, please click the link here - http://news.esotericcarcare.com/esot...n-bmw-f85-x5m/
Thank you for taking a look into the Esoteric Edition BMW F85 X5M!