[utkarshmohan86]

Hi everyone
I'm Utkarsh, based in Singapore. This is the first impressions write-up of my new old car, the F30 Alpina B3 Bi-turbo. Given that this is not the best known model and I only had the chance to drive it for a couple of weeks before returning to India for a family emergency, this post is more about the manufacturer, model and initial impressions about the car. I should be back in Singapore next month and about a month or two consequent (by April), I will be writing a detailed review. Thank you for reading



WHY ALPINA?

Circa 1998, came in my opinion one of the most iconic motoring ads of all time. The camera focused on a land-speed record vehicle, keeping up with it's tremendous pace, only to reveal at the end that the camera was mounted on a staid looking saloon car, that was keeping pace with this land speed vehicle. The staid saloon car was the E39 BMW M5.

There is a certain appeal to the super saloon, the Q car, the wolf in sheep's clothing and has been the stuff of my automotive dreams since I ran across the road to Rajkot to catch sight of the first BMW I saw in real life, a plain jane 318i. More than the car, it is the philosophy of subtle performance, a car that can serve both as taxi and supercar that hits a visceral nerve for me and owning an M car has been on the bucket list since.

Since 1998, a few things have happened. The M badge has turned from a inside secret that petrol-heads smiled at whenever they spotted one to BMW's top marketing gimmick, adorning the most un-M of BMWs thanks to the genius who thought up M Sport Trim (He probably got a promotion but the petrol-head in me wants him to face a tribunal of his peers). Then there are the M cars themselves, adorned with skirts and body-kits galore, about as subtle as that pumped dude who goes to the gym and can't stop looking at himself in the mirror.

This is the main reason I started falling out of love with M cars, because the philosophy of the brand changed in line with consumer expectations. I don't blame BMW but I needed something different, something closer to the old M philosophy and that's where Alpina came in.

WHAT IS ALPINA?

Alpina is an independent car manufacturer located in Bavaria, with very close ties with BMW. When I say close ties, they essentially take BMW's off the factory line and then modify them with their philosophy, while still retaining the BMW factory warranty. What is this philosophy you ask?

Get from point A to B in extreme comfort extremely quickly. Alpina's are closer to the classical intent of Bentleys which strive to have both super luxury and performance, in contrast to M cars which strives to balance both the road and race-track needs. Alpinas don't care about the race-track, they are just fast extremely comfortable road cars which gives them significant differentiation from BMW M. However the sting in the entire Alpina tale (did you see what I did there) is that 'fast' most often means faster than their M counterpart, at-least in a straight line.

I won't get into detailed model architecture here, but the simplest way to think of Alpina is that they have a counterpart to most M cars. The car that I will be talking about is my Alpina B3 Biturbo, which is the counterpart to the BMW M3



PURCHASE DECISION

For those of you who have read my forum introduction post, I had an Audi S5 Sportback for the past couple of years, but a F30 335i before that. As complete a car as the Audi was, there was a part of me that craved both the rear wheel drive feel and the personal satisfaction of owning a BMW. It's a childhood thing, I always dreamt of having a BMW and just owning one gives me joy from just owning it.

I lapsed briefly into a larger car (BMW 528i GT) but very quickly realized the folly of my ways. Alpina's were never really on my purchase decision as one of the things prompting my change was to save a bit of money but about a month into the 528i GT's ownership, a Alpina B3 Biturbo popped up in the used market in my perfect combination, Silver Exterior, Red Interior. With only 30K km done over the past four years. Given Alpinas are difficult to sell and the 528i GT quite the opposite, I was able to work a decent deal with the dealer without much heartache. It also turned out coincidentally that he was a good friend of an old friend of mine, so he really helped me out

CAR DESCRIPTION AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Model: F30 Alpina B3 Biturbo, registered in April 2016, but manufactured by BMW in Nov 2014. Alpina probably got their hands on it sometime in 2015. I bought it in September 2020.

Mileage: 30,000 km (when bought)

Exterior: This car comes in Frozen Individual Silver which is a ridiculously expensive option which I wouldn't have specified myself but am happy to take as a used car. That said, apparently maintaining this colour is really difficult so I'm quite glad that the previous owner had a protective ceramic coating done.

The advantage of this colour though is that the lines of the F30 3 series really stand out, making the car look much more muscular than the regular car, even though the only differences are the bumpers and the wheels. Most people who have seen my car think that Alpina is using a different bonnet but they are not. It's the same as the regular 3 series.



Speaking of bumpers and wheels, everything on this car follows the function of high speed stability. This car is designed and tested for a true top speed of 305 kmph. Nothing sums this up better than the video on Youtube of Alpina's CEO Andreas Bovensiepen taking out one of his cars (a B7)at 300 kmph on the de-restricted German autobahn while chatting away to the glory to the befuddled automotive journalist next to him. The journalist Joe Archilles meekly remarks that this is the fastest he has ever been in a car.

To this end, the wheels and tyres of this car are custom built for the model and you are not supposed to change to any other specification. I'm sure its going to be pretty expensive come tyre change time but given the amazing dynamics (more on that in the next section), it think it was a good choice on Alpina's part.



Interior: Lined in Oyster Red Dakota Leather. The Alpina is based off the 335i Sport Line. There is an option to have Rolls Royce grade 'Lavalina' leather but that wasn't ticked. That said, having lived with Dakota leather for 1.5 years with my 335i (It had light beige dakota leather from the modern line trim), its pretty hard wearing. The interior has that typical Dakota leather BMW smell that smells a bit like old books in a library to me. Two Alpina specific upgrades are 1) The Alpina logo on the steering wheel which immediately tells you that this is not a regular BMW and 2) the plaque on the dashboard with individual numbering for each car which is nice if a touch subtle. The other thing about this car which is not Alpina specific but nice is that it is loaded to the gills. It has a sunroof which is always nice, the upgraded Harmon Kardon speakers and Adaptive Cruise Control. The dashboard is old school and analogue and that's the way I like it. I have a severe allergy against touch screens and digital dashboards.







Engine and Performance: Alpina have taken the BMW 335is N55 Twin scroll turbo charged engine and turned it into a true Twin Turbo (hence the name) with beefed up internals. Consequently the figures rise from 306bhp/400 Nm to 410bhp/600 Nm. Given this car still weighs only 1.6 tons, you can do the math on the crazy power to weight. Official 0-100 is about 4s. You do have to be very careful and judicious with your right foot. Barely tickling the throttle keeps it ahead of Singapore traffic and burying your right foot is the equivalent of lighting an explosion ( I don't do it often). As with any rear wheel drive car, the traction control light becomes your best friend but I have to say that the Alpina is so well balanced that the traction control light barely comes on compared to my past 335i. More on the chassis in the next section


Ride and Handling: Beyond bonkers engine upgrades, Alpina is known to have mastered the dark art of chassis tuning. Remember, I drove the car this is based on, the F30 335i for about 1.5 years, and the difference betwen the sheer sophistication of chassis tuning between the two is beyond night and day. The 335i felt like a rocket of an engine bolted to a normal saloon car. The traction control light came on more often than your whatsapp notifications and at expressway speeds in Malaysia, you could feel more than a hint of float even though the engine could go way beyond. The Alpina on the other hand feels like a grown up finished the job on the chassis that BMW was supposed to and feels like one tightly oiled machine.

This car comes with 20 inch wheels yet rides as well as most regular saloon cars I have driven in Comfort mode (It has adaptive dampers). There is another mode (Sport) which firms things up a fair bit but I almost never use it. If I am not mistaken, Alpina has also added additional chassis bracing in the engine compartment which makes the car feel much more cohesive. Two options boxes that were ticked and make all the difference were Alpina tuned Adaptive steering and a mechanical LSD. The adaptive steering is the perfect balance of straight line stability with fast direction changes (lock to lock takes little over a turn) and the LSD makes the rear feel active even at normal city speeds, yet controllable.

Reliability and Maintenance: This is where it's not all ponies and unicorns. The Alpina is going to be an expensive car to maintain with bespoke parts for the engine, special tyres as I mentioned earlier though on the flip side, a lot of parts are shared with the bread and butter F30.

I do however have to mention a positive and a negative. The positive is the fuel economy. In my S5, I used to get about 6-7 in the city and 12 on the highway. I then got a similar figure in the BMW 528i GT. The Alpina does better than both with about 8 in the city and 13-14 on the expressway.

The negative is reliability so far. On the very first day, and sometimes these things happen on the very first day, I experienced the failure of the Turbo Bit Charge pipe. It both scared and annoyed me in equal proportion given the engine went into limp home mode, but the dealer made it right in the same day with a brand new part. Also, there was a perfectly valid reason as old plastic parts tend to corrode in Singapore, especially for low mileage cars, and the Alpina is the better part of 6 years old. It's replaced with the stock Alpina part for now, but I really wish they made these things out of metal instead of plastic.

The other reliability niggle I am expecting are the wheel sensors. These failed on my 335i at around 50K km and I suspect this will be the case for the Alpina. Overall I have my expectations already set and ready for the occasional visit to the workshop and servicing costs to be higher, but I feel like that is a price worth paying for a such a highly engineered car

IN SUMMARY
For some of us, cars transcend transportation and such is most definitely the case with me. The Alpina B3 Bi-Turbo is the modern personification of my dream car(s) (The E39 and E60 M5s), being of similar size and even superior performance, giving me satisfaction of ownership even before I get into the car. The drive puts a school-boy esque smile on my face while with the reassurance that the car can still do car duties like carry 5 people and a full load of luggage.

All of which is ample self rationalization for significant financial outlay and intensive maintenance which a low production model like this requires. I'm lucky to have a supportive wife who understands why petrol-heads like us need to be allowed the space to make sometimes silly decisions.

All of this said, I am hoping to keep this Alpina for some time to come. There's a guy on Youtube (e39source), who has bought and maintained an E39 M5 exceptionally well for the last 10 years, and it is my hope to emulate a similar example with this car.

More to come in a detailed review, hopefully by around April, once I have had a chance to drive the car more. In the meantime please find a few more photos below. There is also a video on Youtube on my channel 'Ministry of Guitar' where I run through the car. Just search for 'Alpina B3 Biturbo Owner's first impressions'.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Reviews section. Thanks for sharing!

What a first post, dude . Congrats on your beast & wish you a rocking 2021! Your car is going to our homepage today.

[dealer]

Congratulations on your new ride! That color really makes your F30 pop out from the rest. Regarding the plastic charge pipe, it's a common point of failure in BMWs that push higher boost. It's always recommended to upgrade it and there are plenty of options available. I would recommend you change it to prevent such failures on the future.

[Axe77]

My word - what a thread. Congratulations on acquiring this absolutely niche product. I must admit I did not know anything about Alpina until reading your thread today. The silver exterior looks absolutely stunning and I guess worth it despite the maintenance.

I know how expensive car licenses are in Singapore (based on displacement / segment etc) but you are clearly making awesome use of the license fee with your choice of steeds.

Look forward to following this thread closely.

[akash_v12]

Congratulations Utkarsh! That's one sexy car you've got hold of. I'm drooling over the Satin Silver and those wheels, oh my god! Perfectly stanced, more power and RWD, what more could you want in a BMW?
Rated 5*. Please keep updating this thread regularly.

[TheGearBox]

Wow, what a looker! Especially those wheels. (I'm guessing 20's?)
By the way, I've heard that it is really expensive to buy cars in Singapore. Could you shed some light on that?

[1LR-GUE]

Congratulations Utkarsh! Your car is a stunning machine. Alpina is my favourite tuning brand of all time. Other tuning brands have CEOs most of whom are entrepreneurs and performance statisticians. Not Andreas Bovensiepen, the current CEO of Alpina. He is a race car driver himself and has even competed in endurance racing. He knows about little things that makes a car thoroughbred.

Petrolheads who think the perfect "road car" doesn't exist should look at Alpina. Even Chris Harris agrees my point of view.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=740gShZJF1M

[roadrunner_nv]

THAT IS A CAR!!

I've always loved how Beemers looked and this one with the bespoke wheels looks just fabulous. Pity that we won't really be able to have something similar in India. All this while, I'm just thinking on how good that 600 Nm is gonna feel...

Have fun bro..

[TheHelix0202]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

PURCHASE DECISION
It's a childhood thing, I always dreamt of having a BMW and just owning one gives me joy from just owning it.

BMWs are what dreams are made of- at least, for us petrolheads! I hope to own a Bimmer someday too.

Exterior:
The advantage of this colour though is that the lines of the F30 3 series really stand out....Most people who have seen my car think that Alpina is using a different bonnet but they are not. It's the same as the regular 3 series.

Very true! Even I was thrown off for a sec there - before I realized that the hood was the stock 3's.

...the wheels and tyres of this car are custom built for the model and you are not supposed to change to any other specification.....This car comes with 20 inch wheels yet rides as well as most regular saloon cars I have driven in Comfort mode (It has adaptive dampers).

Though they look good, they seemed dubious to me until it was confirmed by you that those wheels aren't bad when it comes to ride quality. They will never work in India though

Interior: Lined in Oyster Red Dakota Leather.....The interior has that typical Dakota leather BMW smell that smells a bit like old books in a library to me. Two Alpina specific upgrades are...The dashboard is old school and analogue and that's the way I like it. I have a severe allergy against touch screens and digital dashboards.

Brilliant combo! Had to see to believe they'd blend together so perfectly! The dashboard, steering wheel and upholstery make a perfect symphony together! I hate digital screens too!

Also, there was a perfectly valid reason as old plastic parts tend to corrode in Singapore, especially for low mileage cars, and the Alpina is the better part of 6 years old

Why's this with Singapore?

IN SUMMARY
For some of us, cars transcend transportation and such is most definitely the case with me.......petrol-heads like us need to be allowed the space to make sometimes silly decisions.

Brilliantly put! Couldn't agree any more!

[karan561]

Welcome Utkarsh,

Glad to see an true Alpina (probably the 1st one) on the forum.

IIRC the 0-100 figure of 4.0 Seconds for the X-Drive variant of this B3 was the fastest accelerating Alpina in 2013/14.

Quick question about the steering/paddle shifters. I just noticed a ' + ' sign but the paddle shifters are not visible, so is it that Alpina version has omitted the paddle shifters in favour of buttons ? If so what are your thoughts compared to the 335i you used which had proper paddles.

Happy New Year 2021, Enjoy

[Iyencar]

Wow what a beast and lovely description. How is Alpine not voiding the warranty with such extensive mods?

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by Iyencar

Wow what a beast and lovely description. How is Alpine not voiding the warranty with such extensive mods?

Why would Alpina void the warranty? It's a BMW heavily modified by Alpina themselves.

[kunalsingh]

Originally Posted by utkarshmohan86

Hi everyone
I'm Utkarsh, based in Singapore..

..There is also a video on Youtube on my channel 'Ministry of Guitar' where I run through the car. Just search for 'Alpina B3 Biturbo Owner's first impressions'.

No wonder this car looked familiar! I was going about my usual morning TeamBHP browsing and saw your car on the home page. Had a solid Deja-Vu moment and I quickly went to search for your channel on Youtube to confirm that it was indeed your car. Great to see you TeamBhp man

I have been following your channel for a while now, and it helps me satisfy my GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). Love your PRS collection and I'm so happy to see a fellow Indian doing so well in Singapore (half my family also lives in Singapore and in fact my sister just returned to SG from India after finishing her 2 week quarantine Dubai).

I must say that you have GREAT taste in both your passion for cars and guitars. I hope we can catch up when I'm in SG next (and I secretly wish to buy a guitar off of your collection, preferably a nice DGT or Tremonti )


P.S. - Also found you on instagram, have sent you a follow request.

[RiderZone]

What a lovely car! My boss's boss owns an Alpina B10 that he uses as a daily driver, it's such an understated beauty as well. He seriously injured his left foot recently, but refused to drive anything else to work, which is even more ironic, because he owns a taxi company.

[utkarshmohan86]

Originally Posted by dealer

Congratulations on your new ride! That color really makes your F30 pop out from the rest. Regarding the plastic charge pipe, it's a common point of failure in BMWs that push higher boost. It's always recommended to upgrade it and there are plenty of options available. I would recommend you change it to prevent such failures on the future.

Yes I explored a few aftermarket options a few days post the failure but given I already sprung for the stock Alpina part, guess will wait for the next failure. Fingers crossed, hopefully not so soon. Thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by GTO

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Reviews section. Thanks for sharing!

What a first post, dude . Congrats on your beast & wish you a rocking 2021! Your car is going to our homepage today.

Thank you so much for your kind words. That's really amazing and quite an honour. Appreciate it. Wish you a rocking 2021 too!

Originally Posted by Axe77

My word - what a thread. Congratulations on acquiring this absolutely niche product. I must admit I did not know anything about Alpina until reading your thread today. The silver exterior looks absolutely stunning and I guess worth it despite the maintenance.

I know how expensive car licenses are in Singapore (based on displacement / segment etc) but you are clearly making awesome use of the license fee with your choice of steeds.

Look forward to following this thread closely.

Thanks for the kind words. I should have much more to say once I get back to Singapore. Have been thinking for years to make a monthly diary for my cars and this might be the right opportunity.

Originally Posted by Axe77

My word - what a thread. Congratulations on acquiring this absolutely niche product. I must admit I did not know anything about Alpina until reading your thread today. The silver exterior looks absolutely stunning and I guess worth it despite the maintenance.

I know how expensive car licenses are in Singapore (based on displacement / segment etc) but you are clearly making awesome use of the license fee with your choice of steeds.

Look forward to following this thread closely.

Thanks for the kind words. I should have much more to say once I get back to Singapore. Have been thinking for years to make a monthly diary for my cars and this might be the right opportunity.