Car Evaluation the BMW Alpina B7

Auto blog reviews what they call the “M7″, but we like to submit to it as the special ALPINA B7, an automobile that was put during its paces by our own Road Test Editor Shawn Molnar back in May on the race track.

Alpina’s blown 4.4-liter comes to life like a trainee springing out of bed for a drill sergeant’s call. Any thoughts of turbo lag are slammed to the support of the brain as the B7 takes off.

It’s big and heavy, but it gets out of its own approach with authority. BMW quotes a 0-60 sprint in 4.5 seconds, but it feels quicker and as a chump for brutal power, we are happy to announce that this Alpina sedan hits all the right nerves.

Position the B7 on an open highway, and concrete rolls quietly under its chassis mile after mile. However, it’s complicated to finger another five-place full-size luxury sedan that is as adept off the highway on fun two-lane roads.

Alpina’s decades of experience operational hand-in-hand with BMW has delivered. The suspension change is just about perfect, with very little body roll and nearly fault-free damping on most road surfaces.

Directional changes are speedy and fluid, with great feedback through the steering wheel. While we didn’t like the tiny shift buttons on the back of the routing wheel, the six-speed auto was capable when the car was set in Sport-Plus mode – come to think of it, the B7 could really use one of those trick “M” buttons to personalize act parameters.

The Alpina B7 is a marvelous machine. Defying all logic, the sedan seems to shed pounds as the g-forces increase – the uncanny opinion from the driver’s seat is of a sports car wrapped in a lightweight paper-Mache 7 Series costume.

Don’t forget, with a base cost of just $122,000 the B7 also contentedly undercuts the $137,000 twelve-cylinder twin-turbo 760Li.