Shoving A BMW V10 In A Mazda Miata Is As Tough As You Think

We've seen several Mazda MX-5 Miatas receiving huge engines in the past, but most, if not all, were V8s being shoehorned into the tiny engine bay. But the folks from Drivetribe and Everything M have something else in mind where "Miata" and "BMW V10" are uttered in the same breath. Yeah, the V10 that once lived in an M5 will now call a first-gen Miata home.

It's a BMW S85 V10 5.0-liter mill, a powerhouse loosely born from Bavaria's F1 shenanigans - which are unlikely to be repeated - churning out 500 horsepower and 384 lb-ft of torque.

To shoehorn this used M5 engine into a Miata, the genius minds at Everything M had to channel their inner Einstein. Think of it as trying to fit an elephant into a smart car - you'll need some serious brainstorming and maybe a magic wand or two.

Picture this: custom subframes, bulkhead modifications, and a manual gearbox shoehorned in like Cinderella's glass slipper but a lot less delicate.

The Miata's dainty transmission, renowned for its finesse, threw up its gears in surrender. So a donor BMW 'box is the likely candidate, with the caveat being that the Drivetribe guys want a manual gearbox. While the E60 BMW M5 got a manual gearbox in America, the rest of the world wasn't so lucky.

During a test fit of the engine, it's clear a lot of work will be needed to make it fit, as it doesn't even make it past the chassis rails. But the amount of work needed only becomes apparent when a whiteboard is whipped out and the required parts are jotted down.

The build will require custom exhausts, a bespoke cooling system, and various other mods. Plus, it'll need seriously beefed-up suspension to cope with a lot more weight up front, and the brakes to bring it all to a halt when things get frisky.

So, how does it all turn out? Well, we don't know yet, as this is just the start of the journey, but it looks like an undertaking we're keen to follow.

Crazier still than the concept of one V10-powered MX-5 is two V10-powered MX-5s, which is actually what Drivetribe is doing. This car is the second one, with the first being an ongoing project with a custom narrow-V V10 that's more like a VR10. But work on that has ground to a halt amid technical problems, prompting this Frankenstein effort instead.