For a couple of months I couldn't get to X5. Porsche work, other jobs, and the horse just stood there and hauled. Then all the parts turned up in one place at once, and it was clear there was no putting it off any longer.

The task was simple on paper: first twin turbo X5 on B58, aiming for 800hp. 800 is a stretch, of course. More likely 700 and change, with some luck all 800. New X5M lands in 2027, so chasing F95 LCI makes no sense, and we went the simplest way. All X5M LCI hardware, structural plastic included, because the bumpers hang differently there than on G05. Rear bumper hasn't changed in that time, so it stayed, and that's money saved.

Two crews went to their corners. First one sat down on the engine. Stock manifold came off, and fabrication for two turbos began. Surprisingly, it took less time than expected. The one catch was the transmission. 8HP76X, but in a 2WD case. Not a trivial thing, but we'd seen guys pull it off on built 340i cars, and we followed their pipeline to the letter.

Then we switched to the bumper. Tore the old one off, and it turned out that two months is enough to forget a lot, and a couple of bolts took real fiddling. Plus one of the wheels found a hole on track, and the links on the front left got ripped out. Ordered new ones, swapped them, rebalanced, because the hit had knocked the settings off.

Hung the whole bumper. Stepped back, looked. And realized we couldn't wrap it now. Well, we could, but the front bumper with all its gloss plastic would eat half a day, maybe a full one, and that was never in the plan. So all the plastic came back off, the bare bumper went back on the car, we wrapped it in the same Cheetah Matte Charcoal Metallic in about 20 minutes and started hanging the plastic back. It took a while, but far less than if the gloss had stayed on. While we were at it we redid the mirrors, they'd faded, and there's always black vinyl on the shelf.

Then the taillights/headlights. Without them this conversion doesn't work at all.

And the final act, which turned out to be the longest. The hood. Over a few years the vinyl on it had faded and gone speckled white. You don't see it unless you look closely, but next to a fresh piece it's obvious right away. And here's the lesson we paid two weekends for.

In hot states, vinyl has to come off the roof and hood once a year. Not because it looks bad, but because after that it won't come off at all. We peeled the hood for two days, three grown men (Alex, Felix and I). By the end of day two patience ran out, we were tearing it off with no care left, and the paint underneath suffered.

Installers often say removing vinyl can cost as much as laying it. It's true, and here's why: two weekends, two people, damaged paint. When the hood finally got wrapped in a fresh roll of the same color, it looks great. But the price of that "great" came out higher than the price of the roll.

Then a small photo session and the dyno. 800 didn't happen. 752 in the pocket. And that's fine. The number is honest, the engine is alive, and the gap between 752 and 800 on track is smaller than the gap between what's on paper and what made it to the rollers.

Small stuff: interior redone in Ferrari Cinnamon. Not about the brand, just a good color. White interior went black, the seats went cinnamon. Wheel replaced, the old one was peeling, leather coming apart. The new carbon one is noticeably lighter than stock, and that's a pleasure, especially against the leather: smooth in places, not in others. Center stripe isn't mine, but let it be.

Work isn't done. Two more weeks of picking at it: chrome inside goes to gloss black, wood panels go to carbon. That closes the project for this year, and the horse is left with the one thing we're finishing it for: getting to Bimmer Invasion, towing our E46 widebody behind it and the F10, if Ashley gets hers done before the show.

That's how it is.