Check out the image below...this is not an M5. You might not be able to tell that it's not actually an M5 unless you look closely. It sports wheels from the brand new 2015 M6 Grande Coupe, the ride height is slightly taller but still comfortable, and it may be missing a couple badges here and there, but aside from that you may actually think this is a real M5 if it came rocketing down the road. That is because underneath the fashionable skin, is a 2014 BMW 550xi with a custom quad exhaust with the same stage presence as it's much MUCH more expensive bigger brother.

Now before you start clamoring "poser, poser!" think about the enthusiast market as a whole. We buy cars, and pay to modify them. Sometimes we pay even more to modify a lower end car to look like a higher end model than what it would've cost to just buy the higher end model! It is a bizarre love-hate relationship that just manages to empty out our wallets at the end of the day. Ultimately, however, we look back at the journey and say "that was fun, and that was worth it" and that, my friends, is something money can't buy.

This customer definitely walked away with a big smile on his face and fell in love with his F10 all over again. We are happy to have been there with him to document this transformation and hopefully bring you an informative post in case you were interested in doing such a conversion.

What are we talking about? We're talkinb about our new featured product - [PhaseOne] F10 BMW 5 series M5 style full body conversion kit for 2011 to 2014 5 series sedans. With the introduction of the face-lifted model in the later half of 2014, this kit will not fit since BMW tweaked the front head lights as well as the front bumper. For everyone else in that category, this kit fits like a wet t-shirt on a hot summer day.

Please allow us to walk you through the details of this transformation:

We started with a brand new 2014 BMW 550xi. Please excuse the bird droppings that has soiled the parking distance controllers (PDC) but that bumper won't be there for long anyway. Looks kinda dreary. Doesn't look like there's a turbo changed V8 engine underneath pushing this behemoth of a car.

You then rip out the front bumper and expose the raw engineering underneath the polypropylene skin. It does kind of take your breath away doesn't it? Alright, that's enough sentiment, still have to remove the fenders and side skirts and rear diffuser.

Our customer getting his hands dirty DIY style! At the end of the day, we are all fellow enthusiasts here, and we love tinkering with sh*t as much as we like seeing the end result. If you're a foodie, you can appreciate it when I say "the food tastes that much better when you know you cooked it with your own two hands".

What about the paint job? That part we left to the professionals. Actually, we left the entire project to the hands of the professionals in the end, because it wasn't something two people could get done in a small garage without proper tools and technique. Nonetheless, it was good times, and we did learn a lot from the experience.

This is the most difficult part of the conversion: making the decision about which exhaust tips to use! If you have keen eyes, you will notice that the M5 diffuser is quite different than the diffuser from it's siblings. Not only is it a quad setup, the gap to gap distance is not the same as the 550xi. Same goes for those of you with 528's and 535's, you'll be faced with making this same decision, but once you make that difficult choice, your face will explode with joy like a Awesome Blosson from Chili's.

Rear bumper and diffuser was already installed at this point, and the exhaust tips had to be adjusted so that they stick out evenly from the rear diffuser. This is what we leave to the pros to do! Cutting and welding metal isn't something most people are adept at.

Looks like we won't be needing these old exhaust tips anymore! Out with the old, in with the new!

After many days in the body shop, this is the end result.

A rear angle shot showing off those M6 Grand Coupe rims and shiny new rear end.

Wait, happened here? Oh right, our customer wasn't satisfied with the polished tips, and opted to go with black chrome instead. They look absolutely phenomenal!

Here's a gallery with some more pictures of this awesome conversion project.

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At the end of the day, we have one very happy customer and a product that we can put our stamp-of-approval and offer to all our customers.