Chris Harris Put Corduroy Seats in His E61 M5 Wagon

As hard as it may be for some of us to believe, the first of the E60/E61-generation BMW M5s and their roaring V-10s are nearly 20 years old. Time is not always kind to some of the materials used in the interiors of those early Aughts Bimmers, however, but Top Gear presenter Chris Harris has found a solution: his E61 M5 Touring is now upholstered in corduroy.

In a post revealing the car on Instagram, Harris says that the corduroy replaces "nasty, fake-feeling, non-gripping, always the wrong temperature fake leather." It is replaced by a corduroy that Harris describes as "soft, grippy, and subtle."

The swap fixes a major weakness in the cult classic, counterintuitively modernizing the M5 by taking a big leap further into the past. Not only does this add to the M5's bona fides as a luxurious mid-size performance car, it makes this particular car one of a kind.

GP Customs & Classics, the shop that performed the reupholstering job, describes the corduroy shade as "rust." That makes for a bold pairing with the Indianapolis Red paint of Harris's car, although it all works together fairly well in the images..

In his post, Harris invites people who want to hate his car to do so as they please; the point was that he made the car he wanted, one that replaces a frustration he has with a source of genuine joy. That's worth getting behind... even for people who don't want a material synonymous with the 1970s in their V-10 super-wagon.

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