Yeah I was looking at that and not sure if I can get the clear covering off the gear shift to do some modifications to it. It could be a case of baking the gear knob to see if the cover will lift.

It doesn't just come apart? It looks like that top piece would unscrew, but I really don't know. It would be great to find something that matched the X's shift pattern, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head. GL & looking forward to see what you come up with!

No it doesnt come apart!! Its not in two pieces although I can see where it may look like that! But I have got a bit further.
What I did was remove the thumb pads from the gear shift and baked the gear know for 10mins, took it out of the oven and hey presto the clear bit with the gear selector positions came off!! Looks like this now
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...p/DSC00541.jpg

Wow - you're making great progress! :thumbup:

Yeah! Thanks! I'm actually another step ahead and spoke to a friend at a graphics company who can make me up the exact shift pattern in graphic form to fit the gear knob. Here is a rough sketch of what he suggested he will do. It will also be done in color the same as the original with small M logo. I'm pretty excited about it now!!
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...HFTPATTERN.jpg

Awesome! Will you be able to hook up the illumination too?

Illumination is only available on then NEW M5 or M6 gear knob. This one is an M3 SMG gear knob so doesnt have the feature. Here is the finished product and I'm very impressed. It feels much better than the standard Gear selector and even when driving in manual the shifting of the gears feel fantastic. I was planning on shortning the gear stalk but after fitting this it sits alot lower than the original so I'm not going to bother plus this way the original can be put on again with no problems. I had my friend make up the graphics to replace the original shift pattern. Then we used the original insert and covered it with the new graphics, on top of that we then put a clear film so there would be no wear of the new graphics. It cost me in all £8.00 and he gave me 10 replacable graphics!!
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...p/DSC00552.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...p/DSC00553.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...p/DSC00557.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...p/DSC00558.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...p/DSC00563.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...p/DSC00562.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...p/DSC00560.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...p/DSC00561.jpg

You are a lightening-fast modder! I can't believe you got that done and installed again already! Looks great! The only think I may have done differently is not include the ///M since our X's are not M's, but that's a real minor point - still looks great and if you like the ///M that's what counts!

Thanks!! Just kept the M because the original had it, all SMG cars are M cars and the M also stands for Manual like on the X5 gear change anyway plus on my SMG steering wheel it also has the M on the lower trim. Just a bit of a styling statment really.

You have a good point there. You could probably start up a little business selling those around the forums... ;) :thumbup:

You're making me think - I wonder if the '07 X5's shift knobs will fit our X's - I think those are illuminated. I'm sure it won't be too long before someone gives it a shot!