Alpina B3 and B4 GT

 

When BMW facelifts a car you can be sure that Alpina won’t waste time upgrading its own versions of those same vehicles, and hot on the heels of the refreshed 3- and 4-Series sedans come the new Alpina B3 and B4 GT. The ‘GT’ tag is new, but it’s one Alpina used last year for run-out editions of the old 5-Series-based B5. In this case, though, the B3 and B4 GT are regular Alpina production models, though they do bring some significant changes over the plain B3 and B4 they replace.

One of those upgrades relates to the S58 twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline six (the same engine as the M3/M4), which receives a 34 hp power hike over the standard B3 and B4, taking it to 522 hp. With Alpina now owned by BMW, it can’t be a coincidence that the parent company’s own hot 3- and 4-Series cars, the M3 and M4, are rated at 523 hp in their top-performing guise following their recent mid-life boost – 1 horsepower higher – preserving their status as top dogs.

 

The Alpinas make more torque, however, pushing out the same 730 Nm as before, and maintaining an edge over the 650 Nm BMWs. Those extra horses make each of the three all-wheel drive GTs 0.2 seconds quicker to 100 km/h than the cars they replace, the B3 GT sedan now getting there in 3.4 seconds, a tenth quicker than the M3 Competition xDrive, which takes the same 3.5 seconds as the B3 GT wagon and B4 GT Gran Coupe. Keep the pedal pinned and the advantage versus the old B cars grows to as much as a full second by the time the new trio has hit 200 km/h, and they all gain a couple of mph at the top end. The B3 GT sedan again takes the win, hitting 308 km/h, with the remaining pair clocking 305 km/h.

Chassis upgrades include a bigger rear anti-roll bar and revised shocks on the B3s, and new shocks, reinforced front suspension mounts, and a new tune for the steering and electronically-controlled rear LSD on the B4. All models now come with small motorsport-style canards and a splitter on the front end, a new gloss black diffuser, and black tailpipes at the rear end, the B4 inherits the facelifted M4’s updated headlights and the trick 3D rear lights originally seen on the M4 CSL, and the B3 now rolls on the 20-inch forged wheels previously reserved for the B4.