Facelifted Alpina B5 BiTurbo Touring Spotted During Testing
Look all you want, but we’re never getting it here in the US.
BMW of North America has been particularly cruel to wagon fans. When the E34 wagon premiered at the end of its model run, BMW gave American buyers a tantalizing, but ultimately unfulfilling proposition. Almost as if they were teasing us, they said – “You can have a wagon. You can have a V8. You can have a stick. Now, pick two.”
It only got worse from there. BMW charged a premium for wagon models, only offering the lowest-spec trims in this country, and then dropping them off of the order list altogether, almost as if to say “See? Nobody wants wagons,” when they never really gave us a choice in the first place.
Alpina fetishists don’t have it much better. BMW of North America is all too careful to ensure that no Alpina model sold here can step on the toes of an existing M car. As a result, our selection is limited.
We hope that you’ll excuse this wordy intro, as it’s an over-complicated way of saying something very simple. This hurts.
Hauling More Than Cargo
Carscoops recently spotted the upcoming, facelifted Alpina B5 BiTurbo Touring. You can see their spy shots HERE, but the front and rear fascias are covered in the usual camouflage. From its overall shape, we can easily tell that the proportions of this fast wagon are just as good as they’ve ever been (pictured here is the current car).
The headlights of the updated 5 Series are getting slimmer, but the ever-growing grilles are becoming wider to meet them. For this newest Alpina variant, CarScoops is under the impression that the styling will become more aggressive than ever before. Given the fact that Alpinas have always traded in subtlety, we’re interested in seeing what this new model brings.
The current model packs a 4.4 L twin-turbo V8 producing a brain-melting, tire-shredding 600 horsepower and 590 lb/ft of torque. We’re not sure if the facelifted car will improve upon those numbers. For the first time in our lives, we find ourselves not really caring.
Part of that lies in the fact that we can’t imagine wanting more than a 3.7 0-60 run or an honest-to-goodness 200 MPH top speed from a wagon. Of course, we’re also a bit emotionally detached knowing that we’ll never see it stateside.
Assuming current regulations hold fast for the foreseeable future, we’ll be able to import one of these for ourselves sometime around 2045. It’s going to be a long wait.
Photos: Alpina
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