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.
Daniel Golson / Jalopnik
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?
