I was doing my typical carspotting route through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills on Sunday, and it was a good one. While I missed seeing a Bugatti Chiron by just a couple minutes, I spotted multiple Mercedes SLS and SLRs, a Polestar 1, the first delivered Cadillac Celestiq, a Spyker C8 Spyder, and a fabulous 1950s Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. But by far the spot of the day — and maybe my funniest Beverly Hills spot ever — was this Audi LS5 Baja build that had just been at SEMA.
Yes, you read that right, I called it an Audi LS5. The Audi was pulling out of a parking spot as I drove by, and when I rolled down my window to say “I love your Audi A5,” the driver loudly said back “it’s an LS5!” That eight-cylinder American powertrain was immediately apparent as the traffic ahead started moving and he blasted ahead. This is the kind of silly build the world needs more of.
It looks so happy
The LS5 was created by MLZ Garage, who are no strangers to wild builds — they’ve created a Nissan 350Z powered by two Honda K24 motors, and somehow towed this Audi with it. The LS5 was a Baja build project they already had, and they put out a great video showing off the build in progress last month. Originally, the car had Audi’s naturally aspirated 3.2-liter V6, but it wasn’t powerful or strong enough. Initially they were going to put in a supercharged 3.2-liter V6 from an Audi SQ5, as it seemed like a bolt-in swap, but it didn’t work. They ended up swapping in a 6.2-liter LS V8, which ended up being much easier. While there’s no more Quattro all-wheel drive, it’s up about 200 horsepower and 200 pound-feet of torque.
While to me it was clearly A5-based, MLZ Garage did change a hell of a lot, and the guy behind the wheel said I was the first person to correctly identify what it was. The LS5 has twelve inches of suspension travel, awesome custom tubular bumpers with off-road lights, a spare wheel and tire sticking out of the trunk, suspension popping out of the hood, and a rooftop tent on top, as they camped in it on the way to and from SEMA. Can I get a “hell yeah, brother” in the chat?
