Watch this roofless BMW X5 conquer everything

If you think about it, the E53 X5 is one of the most important BMWs ever produced. It was the company’s first SUV, and, arguably, the car that blew the door wide open for the whole SUV boom. Back in 1999 it was the most fashionable thing to be seen in on the school run and pretty much never went off-road. Primarily because it wasn’t all that competent at it. But that’s never enough to stop the Russians.

Just check out the video above for proof. See, with first-gen X5s hitting rock-bottom prices (or worse, the scrappy) the chaps from the AcademeG YouTube channel picked up a battered example and set to work on it to make it mud-pluggable. 

Obviously, they chopped off the roof first. Because Russia. But then they went around with great precision and care hacksawing whatever they could, popping off all the airbags (nobody wants a face full of dusty airbag off-road), before jacking the ride height up and smashing the body panels with a big hammer until some oversized, chunky tyres fit under the battered arches. Then, because they’re safety conscious types, they welded a flimsy roll-cage in. We guess they must have run out of time to sand down the sharp edges. But you know the rules: keep your arms and legs in the vehicle at all times.

As you can see from the video above, what they actually created was genius as this X5 can actually go off-road. Like properly off-road. AcademeG, we doff our caps.