The latest generation of the Alpina B3 arrived with a storm at the Tokyo Auto Show in October 2019 bringing a heavily reworked 3.0-liter engine and a sporty appearance. The performance sedan’s main goal is to bridge the gap between the M340i xDrive and the M3 Competition.
We know the cars Alpina makes are fast, very fast. Sport Auto wanted to find out exactly how fast the new B3 is and took the sedan to the Nurburgring for a quick lap. With test driver Christian Gebhardt behind the wheel and riding on Pirelli P Zero ALP tires, the B3 registered a time of 7:53.26 minutes. Not terrible, not great.
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A quick comparison with other cars in the 7:50-minute range shows the sedan is quicker than the BMW M2 and BMW F10 M5 Competition, but slower than the previous generation BMW M4 and the BMW M2 Competition. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise as the curb weight of the tested car was 3,962 pounds (1,797 kilograms).
Under the hood, the new B3 has a 3.0-liter twin-turbo engine producing 462 horsepower (344 kilowatts) and 516 pound-feet (700 Newton-meters) of torque. Thanks to this, it is able to hit 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) from a standstill in just 3.8 seconds all the way up to a respectable 188 mph (303 kph) top speed. The 0 to 124 mph (0-200 kph) sprint takes 13.4 seconds.
Honestly, we are not disappointed with the new B3’s Nurburgring time but we are not thrilled either. Despite the numerous upgrades over a stock M430i xDrive, including fully adaptive dampers, Eibach springs, and bigger stabilizer bars, the Alpina B3 remains behind cars like the Volvo S60 Polestar and Alfa Romeo Stelvio QV.
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