Alpina was founded in Germany in 1965. The company has close ties with BMW, as close as any tuner or aftermarket company really could have. In fact, the German government recognizes Alpina as a manufacturer, not just an aftermarket tuner. In the United States, Alpina cars are sold with full warranties through BMW dealers. Techs are fully trained to work on these cars.
The 2018 BMW Alpina B7 is manufactured along the same production line in the same facility as the regular BMW 7 Series. The biggest difference rests under the hood. Instead of a production-spec engine, the B7 gets a 600-horsepower 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 that was hand assembled in Alpina’s factory and sent to BMW’s production facility. The car is then sent to Alpina for final touches.
The odd thing about the B7 is that it competes very, very closely with the BMW M760i. Both have 600 hp and 590 pound-feet of torque. Both are loaded to the gills with equipment like high-end stereo systems, massaging seats, all-wheel drive and several cows worth of leather. Unlike the Alpina B7, the M760i gets a twin-turbocharged V12.
Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore: This B7 is a beautiful car. It’s opulent, powerful and it feels special in the way we’ve come to expect from Alpinas. The interior is borderline decadent, with the Tartufo Merino leather sprucing up the 7 Series’ usually buttoned-down cabin. Alpina worked over the V8 to crank out 600 hp, and this big sedan has plenty of juice. Delivery is subtle and smooth, but you still get up to speed quickly. Just for the raw experience, I’d go for the V12-powered 760 — that thing makes the hood soar up like the bow of a motorboat.
I like what Alpina does and how they do it. The company dressed the 7 Series with eye-popping 20-inch wheels, LED head- and foglights, and custom exhaust. It’s imposing yet not overwrought. There’s plenty of curb appeal. Even if some of these custom treatments might be a bit gaudy, the Alpina Blue paint tempers everything to communicate luxury tastefully. It’s always memorable to drive an Alpina.
Associate Editor Reese Counts: I’m a big fan of grossly overpowered sedans. They appeal to my youth, which was spent behind the wheel of American muscle cars that were great up until they had to turn a corner. Goose it and go. The B7 brings me back to those days. It has a torque-rich V8 that helps propel you to extralegal speeds very quickly. The engine revs quickly, though it shifts short of it’s 7,000 rpm redline, even in manual mode.
Don’t curb these. #bmw#alpina#b7#7series@therealautoblogpic.twitter.com/C0wJGsKoI9
— Reese Counts (@rmcounts) April 3, 2018
Like Greg, I think this is a really handsome car. I love the paint and the tasteful application of Alpina badges. I’m especially in love with the classic wheels, though they seem to have lost the hidden lug nuts and valve stem. It’s sporty, but doesn’t give away anything. The interior is quiet and comfortable. All the leather feels truly premium. This might be the first application of piano black trim that I actually really like. If you watch any of our live videos, you’ll know how difficult that is for me to admit.
I also have the same problem with the B7 that Greg does: the M760i and it’s silky smooth V12. BMW makes some wonderful inline-six engines, and the V12 is essentially two of them connected with a common crankshaft. It sings a truly glorious song that outshines the Alpina’s V8. It’s slightly slower and slightly more expensive, but it also feels just a little more special.
All that said, I think I’d take the Mercedes-AMG S63 over both.
Senior Editor, Green John Beltz Snyder: At first, I wasn’t overly impressed with the Alpina B7. The 7 Series already feels lavish, so a unique leather treatment, special badges and unique details are mostly lost on me. I felt the same sense of coddling as I would in any high-end, full-size German sedan. They all seem wondrous in their opulence.
Then I hit the gas. The sound of the car didn’t overwhelm me as much as the feeling of being pressed hard into my seatback. My sunglasses, which were on top of my head, flew behind me and caught behind my neck. I probably made a ridiculous face, too. I was absolutely pinned, and I hadn’t even given this thing full throttle.
The funny thing is, the B7 doesn’t sound particularly wild from the inside. The exhaust note heard from the exterior on Reese’s Live Drive on Facebook (see below) was toned way down from the front seat. The other thing interesting thing is that I actually had to go out of my way to find a place with enough room for full acceleration. On my normal route home, I’d run out of room almost as soon as the car downshifted, catching up with traffic before it had a chance to go buck wild.
When I did find an open stretch of road, I still had to abort acceleration runs early, as the B7 ticked past the speed limit too quickly. This sort of power is fun, but it’s mostly unusable in real-world driving.
A final note: I was driving this car in the pouring rain at night, and in light snow in the morning. In all my playful footwork, I never found the B7 struggling for grip. Despite the sheer force of acceleration, longitudinal grip — split among four wheels — was never a scarcity. That’s impressive.
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