Alpina B3 Touring 2021 - The Best Barried-up Bimmer?
Discussion
andy43 said:
Beautiful. As someone's already said, if you know, you know.
I had an E46 B3 cab which I loved - the leatherwork and the whole feel of the car was very different to the M3 and 330s. Class.
You will hate the wheels after about a dozen cleaning sessions
I'm there already bud!I had an E46 B3 cab which I loved - the leatherwork and the whole feel of the car was very different to the M3 and 330s. Class.
You will hate the wheels after about a dozen cleaning sessions
Jonny Wishbone said:
Alfahorn said:
Awesome car OP and a great write up. Given the 'investment' will you be keeping the car long-term?
Oh yes! Despite what I’ve written I don’t enjoy flushing cash down the bog and obviously owning one of these from new for only 3 years or so is punishing in depreciation (the D3 S will be much better on this front). I imagine this will be my last new ICE car and I intend to keep it as long as I can, or at least until leccy tech has advanced to the stage where adoption is a no brainer, which I reckon is several years away yet. One of the ways I justified the purchase to myself is that it really is all the car I will need whilst the kids are growing up.A friend of mine did similar when he bought a new Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio in March 2017. It was far and away the most expensive car he’d bought (£70k) and he bought it to keep if indefinitely.
It’s a lot of money but you will have worked hard for it so enjoy it.
I really get the Alpina "thing" and if it's what you really want as a car to keep for some time then why not? Easy to justify with some Man Maths.
My only issue with them is they are nearly all Autos, and BMW became my "go-to" option for manual RWD cars years ago - although they don't offer so many these days either!
And as iconic as they are those wheels would drive me nuts every time I washed the car.
Just enjoy it as much as you can these days.
My only issue with them is they are nearly all Autos, and BMW became my "go-to" option for manual RWD cars years ago - although they don't offer so many these days either!
And as iconic as they are those wheels would drive me nuts every time I washed the car.
Just enjoy it as much as you can these days.
I spent ages agonising over one of these or another C63s estate 18 months ago. I went with the C63s as I was having sleepless nights about the end of V8’s etc, and I am originally from Essex.
Your steed is a reminder of what could have been - The C63 is all elbows and shouting ( I admit to having driven them since 2011 ), whilst you have a fine, fine, car that is rare and special. You have also displayed patience matched only by the Dalai Lama ( double well done for signing up to that delivery period )
A superb choice, an epic colour - I salute you, sir
Your steed is a reminder of what could have been - The C63 is all elbows and shouting ( I admit to having driven them since 2011 ), whilst you have a fine, fine, car that is rare and special. You have also displayed patience matched only by the Dalai Lama ( double well done for signing up to that delivery period )
A superb choice, an epic colour - I salute you, sir
Tin Hat said:
I spent ages agonising over one of these or another C63s estate 18 months ago. I went with the C63s as I was having sleepless nights about the end of V8’s etc, and I am originally from Essex.
Your steed is a reminder of what could have been - The C63 is all elbows and shouting ( I admit to having driven them since 2011 ), whilst you have a fine, fine, car that is rare and special. You have also displayed patience matched only by the Dalai Lama ( double well done for signing up to that delivery period )
A superb choice, an epic colour - I salute you, sir
Your steed is a reminder of what could have been - The C63 is all elbows and shouting ( I admit to having driven them since 2011 ), whilst you have a fine, fine, car that is rare and special. You have also displayed patience matched only by the Dalai Lama ( double well done for signing up to that delivery period )
A superb choice, an epic colour - I salute you, sir
Given what you’ve written no doubt you made the right choice. There are very few negatives with my car - the ridiculously fat steering wheel is one - but the biggest one is probably the muted soundtrack. It’s not that it sounds bad - it’s perfectly pleasant - but there isn’t much of what noise it does produce in any mode unless you wring it’s neck, which it doesn’t really want you to do. Now I don’t mind that too much because it suits the character of the car and most of the time I wouldn’t want too much noise coming from the exhaust (it’s just that the option would be nice) but if you’re used to 10 years of roaring V8’s, especially if that includes the previous 6.2L beast, I suspect you’d be disappointed.
Jonny Wishbone said:
To my knowledge Alpina have never supplied a car with RFT as it would go against their aim of providing a supple ride. This car comes with bespoke P-Zeros that apparently have a more pliant side wall than standard.
The website has an accessories catalogue which shows that they now supply wheel and tyre packages with runflats. Perhaps they don’t fit them to their own masterpieces..By the way I used to own the rarest and most sought after Alpina (aside from the E9)..now sold and housed in Germany.
Paracetamol said:
The website has an accessories catalogue which shows that they now supply wheel and tyre packages with runflats. Perhaps they don’t fit them to their own masterpieces..
By the way I used to own the rarest and most sought after Alpina (aside from the E9)..now sold and housed in Germany.
What a fantastic car. Do tell...By the way I used to own the rarest and most sought after Alpina (aside from the E9)..now sold and housed in Germany.
Thanks! It’s an Alpina B7S and only 30 were built in 1982.
They ran a large turbo which have them 330bhp..and no traction control or abs etc.
My collection was a bit out of control and so I decided to let go of her and had it at the RM auction in Paris at the eve of COVID. It didn’t sell but did soon afterwards to I believe the ex chairman of BMW.
The injection system was beyond repair as the ECU was 1 of 30 and no spare parts were available to repair it (how things are likely to look in the future with so many electronics). The system was replaced with a motec system which gave it another 30 bhp.
They ran a large turbo which have them 330bhp..and no traction control or abs etc.
My collection was a bit out of control and so I decided to let go of her and had it at the RM auction in Paris at the eve of COVID. It didn’t sell but did soon afterwards to I believe the ex chairman of BMW.
The injection system was beyond repair as the ECU was 1 of 30 and no spare parts were available to repair it (how things are likely to look in the future with so many electronics). The system was replaced with a motec system which gave it another 30 bhp.
Edited by Paracetamol on Saturday 13th March 19:15
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