My dealer has a new 07 Alpina 7 that is quite stunning. It's been sitting in the showroom a long time too ($116k, as I recall), but I think what kills that big of a car is the color. That Edelweiss blue or Alpina blue or perriwinkle just looks hoaky on a 7. But I'd take it...

Ray

 

This needs translation as well but we can at least understand the presented test figures/results. (does not seem in favor of the B5 though)

 

The B5 is steptronic, so -15 HP at the wheels compared to the SMG/manual .
So the B5 should have 25 WHP less than the M5 .

The clip you liked is useless, because on the 0-100 the alpina with the steptronic is surely faster .

Another consideration is that with the M5 you cannot do more than 3-5 LC while on the step you can press the brake and in the meantime the gas a million of times .

Here a rolling start :

Now the new B5S has +35 HP than the current M5 .

 

Well, I'm selling my B5 now, but it was fun while it lasted...

As for all the "missing" bits that Alex mentioned, the only one I really missed at all (and only cos I'm a softie) during 2.5yrs of ownership was the heated steering wheel. You wouldn't catch me optioning the active steering, even if given the choice. Actually, come to think of it, isn't the M5 "missing" active roll control and active steering, also?

As you know, there's an Alpina LSD now available on the B5 and standard on the B6, which can easily be retro-fitted to earlier B5's, also. The main reason there wasn't one available from launch was the development cost, as I understand it, since they'd already developed a heavy-duty open diff for the B7, and sold the design to BMW. BMW offered them the M-diff for the B5 during development, but the engine lunched it - too much torque.

As for tweaking pulleys on the supercharger, etc., I think it'd be a bit more involved than that, given the design of the ASA setup.