BMW never built an E9 CSL with a 400-horsepower V8 and a six-speed manual. A German enthusiast named Michael Oberhauser did, and the result is now sitting on Bring a Trailer Germany, waiting for someone brave enough to write the check.
The car is the work of MKO, Oberhauser’s outfit, which spent roughly a decade ago executing one of the most ambitious BMW mashups ever attempted. This wasn’t a lazy engine swap. He took an E39 M5 sedan, stripped its upper body, chopped eight inches out of the floorpan, and grafted the roof from an E9 CS coupe on top.
That kind of surgery sounds insane because it is.
The front fenders were widened by about 2.5 inches, the rears by four. Much of the metal shaping was done by hand in Romania, where skilled fabricators could do the work at a fraction of German labor costs. The finished body wears CSL “Batmobile” aero cues — the signature roof spoiler, tiny fender fins, Hella driving lights, and 3.0 CSL badges.
The paint is a Porsche color, because when you’re already mixing BMWs from two different decades, why not raid Stuttgart’s palette too?
Underneath that slim-pillared coupe skin lives the guts of a proper E39 M5. The rebuilt 4.9-liter S62 V8 makes a claimed 426 horsepower, routed to the rear wheels through the M5’s six-speed manual gearbox and a limited-slip differential. KW adjustable coilovers replaced the stock suspension, and the M5 brakes stayed.
It rides on 19-inch Alpina-style wheels wearing Continental SportContact 7 rubber, an upgrade from the stock M5 rollers it originally wore.
Step inside and the time warp breaks — deliberately. The modified M5 dashboard remains intact, flanked by heated Recaro seats. Dual-zone climate control, power windows, and a Pioneer touchscreen all sit where you’d expect modern amenities.
One clever detail: the driver’s door window switches had to be relocated to the center console to make the narrower E9 door cards work.
It’s the kind of build that polarizes. Purists will argue two classic E9 coupes were sacrificed. Hot-rodders will call it the best possible use of donor cars that were probably too far gone to restore economically.
The E9 coupe, especially in CSL trim, is one of BMW’s most beautiful shapes. The E39 M5 is widely regarded as the company’s finest sports sedan, the last analog M5 before electronics started doing the thinking. Welding them together is either sacrilege or genius, depending on where you stand.
What’s undeniable is the craftsmanship. This isn’t a weekend garage hack with visible welds and misaligned panels. The proportions look right. Someone spent real money and real time getting the gaps straight and the stance correct.
The listing doesn’t include an asking price — it’s an auction format, so the market will decide what this Frankenstein is worth. Given the current appetite for high-quality restomods and the cult status of both donor platforms, the bidding could get interesting fast.
A car like this only exists because one person cared enough to imagine it, fund it, and see it through. That’s rarer than any factory-built CSL.
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