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| Shift buttons mounted behind wheel |
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Few cars have the ability to gather speed so quickly yet with so little drama, which makes the £76,000 pricetag look like good value. The blown V8 is massively responsive at low revs - so much so that it's a while before I can enter a roundabout without kicking the traction control into play, at least in the wet - and Alpina's alterations to the software that controls the six-speed ZF gearbox (already the finest automatic transmission in the world) give it a near-telepathic ability to anticipate the driver's needs. The shifts, which can be performed manually via a pair of buttons mounted behind the Alpina leather steering wheel, are sharper than ever thanks to a revised torque converter.
For the record, the B7 will hit 62mph from a standstill in 5.5 seconds. And such is the ability of the chassis, so finely damped and highly polished do the car's rear-drive dynamics feel, that you never find yourself thinking "this shouldn't be happening!" In the B7, travelling at warp speeds feels right.
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| Intense levels of grip from huge Michelins |
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Much of this can be ascribed to the intense levels of grip that those enormous 285/30-profile Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tyres generate. The B7 carves into bends with an eagerness that belies its huge bulk, its steering making up in weight and accuracy what it lacks in feedback. The nose will gently wash into understeer under heavy cornering loads, but assumes a supremely exploitable, neutral attitude as the 516lb ft of torque tips the balance of the twist/traction equation in its favour. You'd stop short of calling the car agile - it's not as light on its feet as the aluminium-bodied Jag XK - but it's well balanced, very surefooted and possessed with an almost supernatural turn of pace out of bends. The brakes are similarly impressive, hauling the car down from motorway speeds with consummate ease.
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