Amidst all the incredible machinery being revealed at the Geneva Motor Show this week, I’d like to direct your attention to what is clearly the best car there: the BMW Alpina B5 Bi-Turbo Touring. Alpina has a long history of making BMWs prettier and faster and their first G30-based car is only continuing that streak. It’s a prettier, more powerful, and hilariously faster BMW 5 Series Touring and it can’t get any better than that.


The new Alpina B5 is built upon the all-new BMW 5 Series saloon and touring models but with an added kick or two. As is tradition, they run a highly tuned version of the most powerful non-M engine they can get, which in this case is the freshly updated 4.4-liter Twin Power Turbo V8 found in the 550i and others.

Alpina adds their own Bi-Turbo hardware and retunes the variable valve timing and high pressure fuel injection to bring as much out of this engine as they safely can. The result is 608 horsepower and 590 lb.-ft. of torque which gets channeled to all four wheels through an adapted BMW xDrive system and an eight-speed (probably ZF) automatic.

Sadly, they don’t have any press images of the Touring from this angle.

On the saloon at least, that’s enough to make it the quickest car to 60 they’ve ever built at only 3.5 seconds. Add a few tenths and you’ll likely get the touring’s 0-60 time (they didn’t quote it specifically). The saloon will keep charging all the way to 205 mph while the touring goes to only 202 mph due to the extra weight of its greatness.

All B5s get a custom-tuned suspension, lighter wheels, electronically-controlled dampers, rear-wheel steering (an Alpina first), and neutral handling to complement that extra power.
Above all else though, Alpina aims to make their cars as comfortable as possible in every situation. They’re as fast as an M in many cases, but they don’t sacrifice ride quality or comfort to get there. The Touring especially strives to offer great versatility with its 60 cubic feet of cargo volume while still being refined enough to use daily and of course blindingly quick as well.
The best BMW may very well be an Alpina.

[Source: Alpina]