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BMW Alpina

An Interview with Andreas Bovensiepen

July 23, 2018 • Davison

Story by Tim McIntyre

Photos by Alpina

Alpina CEO Andreas Bovensiepen
Alpina CEO Andreas Bovensiepen

Alpina – a bigger, faster and badder BMW?

Our target is to build a dream car for everyday use. Not as sporty as a BMW M but still much more performance than most people can exploit.

Our goal has always been to get the best driving harmony. We are not the best in horsepower, maximum speed, or racetrack driving but we combine very good acceleration with very good high speed, and very good fuel consumption and ease of operation. Within the first two or three kilometres of driving an Alpina, you have to feel that, the car is nice, easy and forgiving to drive.

What about performance at the limit?

Our formula has always been to build stability at maximum speed, with as much comfort as we can. Because it’s not fun to drive with race suspension for any distance. Stiffer suspension does not necessarily mean faster. In the wet, or over bad surfaces, a car that is more pliant is easier to exploit. At very high speeds, say between 250 to 300km/h, we have engineered the steering to not be overly sensitive. If you lose concentration for a moment, the car is still easy to correct.

What about the design?

Our customers like understatement. They don’t find it important to be seen as someone who has a lot of money. So, we don’t get too aggressive here. The Alpina B5 looks like a standard 5 series with bigger wheels. Inside the car, you will see more classic leather and lacquer instead of aluminium and carbon fibre. Our production run is only 1,500 to 1,700 cars annually and this exclusivity is something our customers like as well.

Can you talk about the relationship with BMW?

The partnership gives BMW the possibility to add more exclusivity to the brand while giving customers a very refined driving machine. We have a combined production process where parts from Alpina are sent to the BMW factory to be installed on their production line.

What kind of parts?

We cast our own crankcases. This allows us to mount twin turbochargers while retaining all-wheel drive. We also use forged crankshafts versus a standard BMWs cast item.

Alpina have a different perspective on power

We optimise our engines for torque. That is our philosophy. We like max torque to come in near 3000rpm. On a race track, you may use 5,500 to 7500rpm but in everyday driving, you are often between 2500 and 4500rpm.

It’s also important that your cars are frugal

When you drive high mileage, between 50,000 to 100,000km a year, these things matter. For our customers, it means less fuel stops and of course, money saved. We like to think of an Alpina as a car where you smile when you accelerate and also when you refuel.

Have you had to make performance compromises as a result?

It is possible to use quality engineering, design and parts to get a low to moderate fuel consumption from a fast car. For example, with a torquey engine, the revs can average between 1,500 to 2,000rpm lower than a normal everyday car. Lower revs equal lower consumption.

We also design for zero lift and downforce. Downforce is important for racing cars but it creates drag. Many cars have wide front fenders and even wider tyres, creating even more drag. We prefer to cover the front wheels as best as we can. There are some of the many small but important areas where you can gain advantages in fuel consumption.

How do you test the cars?

We do a 24-hour test at Nardo. Then we run a 40,000km test on the dyno. It’s a demanding test and equal to about 200,000km on the road. And after that, we do another 40,000km test on the road. After all this, we can be quite optimistic about the reliability of the car.

Will we see an Alpina hybrid or electric?

With hybrids, the issue is that you need additional space and nearly 300kg more weight for the battery. That’s not good for handling. Range is another issue. An Alpina B4 has a range of about 600km while the diesel can go 800km. A hybrid’s range is only 400 km – significantly less than what the majority of our customers expect.

With an all-electric car, things are even more difficult. Electrics are great for city driving but not convincing for those who drive fast and far. Take a Tesla for example. At 160km/h, the car will drain its battery very quickly. This is what happened with Tesla owners in Germany. They drove fast initially then found themselves having to learn to drive conservatively and smoothly.

We are a couple of years away from where electric cars can be driven this way our customers want to drive. And have a range that customers can live with. But in a few years, I am convinced you will have an Alpina hybrid.

 

 

Deus Ex Machina BMW Alpina

Stealth Supercar: BMW Alpina B5 Bi-Turbo

July 23, 2018 • Tim McIntyre

Story by Tim McIntyre in Buchloe, Germany

Photos by Alpina

 

The BMW Alpina B5 is a supercar in disguise
The BMW Alpina B5 may lack the archetypal silhouette, but under its bonnet lies a 600-horsepower, 300km/h supercar that will dispatch continents, grocery runs and the daily commute with equal aplomb.

Supercars. They sure are a blast on a racetrack. Great down a long, straight road too. And don’t forget, brilliant at attracting unwanted attention. Shame about that Achilles heel called versatility.

In the real world of passengers, luggage, speedbumps, and multi-storey carparks, supercars don’t do so well. Purists may argue these are purpose built, no compromise machines. But show me where it is written that supercars need to be one-trick ponies.

It certainly isn’t the approach at Alpina.

The Bavarian auto manufacturer has been in the business of making BMWs go fast for over 50 years. Its flagship model, the Alpina B7, has since its inception in 1978, won multiple “World’s Fastest Sedan” accolades.

Safe to say that Alpina know a thing or two about building fast sedans. The Alpina philosophy is simple – supercar performance without supercar constraints. A car for the businessman who enjoys driving fast on the Autobahn but prefers not to show up for meetings in something loud, flash, and obviously expensive.

For starters, the Alpina B5 has a 4.4 litre V8 petrol engine with twin turbochargers and variable valve timing. Good for a very healthy 608 horsepower and a stonking 800 Newton-metres of torque.

Picture if you will a four-door sedan with over 600 horsepower and a top speed well over 300km/h. It would be phenomenally stable at high speed yet easy to drive in traffic. It would average 10 km/l, accommodate four large adults comfortably and only require servicing at 20,000-mile intervals. This is, in fact, the promise and the premise of the new BMW Alpina B5 Bi-Turbo. The car is based on a BMW 5 Series and shares that muscular yet elegant profile.

And that’s about where the similarities end.

For starters, the Alpina B5 has a 4.4 litre V8 petrol engine with twin turbochargers and variable valve timing. Good for a very healthy 608 horsepower and a stonking 800 Newton-metres of torque. Put in perspective, the Alpina B5 makes more power than an Audi R8 V10 and more torque than a Bentley Continental GTC Speed. An eight-speed automatic transmission is standard, allowing the car to accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 3.5 seconds, onto 200km/h in 11.4 seconds, and top out at 330km/h.

Our test route is a mix of country lanes, B-roads and stretches of the Autobahn. Roads are icy in parts and I try to push the all-wheel drive car as fast as I dare, without pushing myself into a ditch. A couple of things are evident within the first few kilometres. The Alpina B5 is one of those cars you can get comfortably up to speed with very quickly. It feels intuitive. Throttle response is predictable and linear, as are the brakes. All-round road visibility is excellent. The engine note is engaging under hard acceleration but is otherwise, unobtrusive, at least in Comfort mode. Things are a wee less tranquil in Sport mode, when active exhaust valves within the signature Alpina twin elliptical tailpipes get to liberate more noise. And of course, power. Of which there is ample.

What is astonishing is the way the Alpina B5’s prodigious power is transmitted with such civility.

What is astonishing is the way the Alpina B5’s prodigious power is transmitted with such civility. A car that really does make 250
feel like 150km/h.

At 2,000rpm, this engine is already putting out 670 of its 800Nm of torque. Yet the car will happily dawdle at street legal speeds all day. Up the pace, and the car comes to life. Stability at speed is exceptional. High speed driving on a highway is, after all, its raison d’etre. Ensuring all that power is kept under control is BMW’s xDrive system working in conjunction with Dynamic Stability Control. Definitive Alpina 20” wheels are forged aluminium and adorned with Alpina-spec Pirelli P Zero tyres measuring 255/35 ZR20 at the front and 295/30 ZR20 at the rear – very good to have in a car that seats four and does 300km/h.

The Alpina B5 is one of those cars you can get comfortably up to speed with very quickly. It feels intuitive. Throttle response is predictable and linear, as are the brakes.

Prompted and prodded by my Alpina hosts, I did manage to nudge 250km/h once. A feat accomplished with alarming ease in a car like this. A car that really does make 250 feel like 150km/h. About the only thing this versatile Alpina B5 won’t do, is draw unwanted attention.

Except maybe from people who know their cars.

Deus Ex Machina BMW Alpina

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