Apina Shows Off New Long Roof B3 Touring
Long live the station wagon! It’s just a shame this Aplina B3 Touring isn’t available with a manual.
The one thing we love more than a BMW is a BMW station wagon. We love them even more when Alpina gets their hands on one. The result of Alpina’s most recent expert tinkering is the B3 Touring on display at the Brussels Motor Show in Belgium. A wagon with 462 horsepower and 515 lb/ft of torque. A wagon with a top speed of 186 miles per hour. A wagon we need. Yesterday.
The engine powering this long roof is BMW’s latest 3.0 turbo inline-6. Power is routed to all four wheels via BMW’s X-drive all-wheel-drive system, but in-between is an 8-speed automatic. No manual option here. Shucks. But this does translate into a 0-60 time under 4 seconds.
Alpina has applied its own suspension, with stiffer springs and sway bars, but the shocks can still be set for comfort if that’s what you want. If rapid reductions of speed are called for, Alpina’s massive 395mm brakes will do a fine job of slowing things down. High-performance rubber wrapped around Alpina’s signature 20 spoke wheels puts those technologies to good use.
The Alpina touch is evident inside as well, with in-house leather on all seating surfaces. Custom steering wheel leather has also been applied. Gauges in blue with red needles are also used, continuing Aplina’s signature touch. But on the outside, the real magic is visible. The only two available colors are Alpina Green and Alpina Blue. We can’t complain though because this green color on Aplina’s more aggressive body styling. Up front, more vents and openings are present, and “ALPINA” script on the lower valance is free-floating. Round back, quad oval tailpipes give a more aggressive look.
While this vehicle is also available as a sedan, we have a feeling the wagon will be more popular. Probably for a reason that you will find quite interesting. In Europe, sedans and station wagons are classified differently in terms of emissions allowances. Despite the sedan and the wagon having exactly the same tailpipe emissions output, the B3 Touring is placed in CO2 Efficiency category class E, and the sedan one class lower, in F. If that somehow sells more wagons, we’re all in favor for it.
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