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| Alpina details are everywhere |
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That all of this has been achieved at virtually no detriment to ride quality and refinement is all the more remarkable. The damping is firm but pliant, translating only the most ragged of craters into a muffled thud, and the body control remarkable for a car of this size. And aside from a distant, purposeful sounding growl under hard acceleration, little in the way of noise penetrates the sanctity of the luxuriously appointed cabin.
The usual Alpina touches are in evidence inside, including blue-backed instruments, blue and green diamond logos on the door trims and 'curled maple' wood on the dashboard and doors. Unfortunately, the wood trim's orange colour and heavily grained appearance are more reminiscent of Judith Chalmers' face than James Bond's Aston DB5, but you can't have everything.
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| Wood trim a bit too orange, but we'll live with it |
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The overwhelming impression you take away from driving the Alpina is its focus. All too often, you climb out of an AMG or Brabus astonished at the abilities of the engine, but wondering just how good it could be in something a little less dynamically flawed. Not so the Alpina - a car that makes no excuses for what it is, and demands no allowances from those who drive it.
The only question this raises is what kind of transformation this powertrain and chassis treatment would wreak on the smaller, more driver-orientated 5 and 6-Series - a question that Alpina plans to answer next year with the B5 and B6. Watch this space...
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