BMW F1X M5/M6 Performance Oil Cooler, 2012-2018

The executive level is cut-throat. It’s always portrayed as a world full of like-minded, power-hungry individuals desperately looking to get ahead of their fellow man. Every achievement is paraded as a victory over others, and everyone has a weakness that’s exploited. While this might be more of Hollywood's representation of the corporate world’s upper crust, the performance executive segment is that competitive. Auto manufacturers have been duking it out for decades to climb the ladder of the segment that BMW practically invented with the M5. Now in its sixth generation, the progenitor of physics-defying luxury sports cars has a weakness open for exploitation in the form of mismanaged oil temperatures and a vulnerably mounted oil cooler. Luckily we’re already on a mission to reinforce this weak link. 

The big BMW M's, like the F1X M5 and M6, are the young executives of the automotive world. They're powerful yet hungry for more. They're decisive and maneuver with precision, but most importantly, they're cool under pressure. Sometimes though, they can lose their cool, and for the M5s and M6s of this era, the oil cooler tends to be the source of their undoing. Luckily, we've already started on our plan to help the F1X's keep climbing the performance ladder. 

Before we dig into our plans to improve the M5's oil cooler, let's take a look at the OEM cooler. BMW engineers are masters of packaging. Effective use of space is the name of the game, and when it comes to fitting the array of coolers on the front of their powerhouse sedans. In the case of the oil cooler, the engineers mounted this heat exchanger horizontal and right at the edge of the M5's big-mouthed fascia and perpendicular with the rest of the cooling stack.