Alpina B3 Is a High-Powered 3 Series, But Don’t Mistake It for an M3

Alpina B3 Is a High-Powered 3 Series, But Don’t Mistake It for an M3

Published: October 31, 2019 | By: American Luxury Staff

This year’s Tokyo Motor Show saw a new model from specialty BMW customizer Alpina. It’s the second B3 variant to emerge from the company this year.

The sedan version of the B3 uses a 3 Series as a platform, of course, and follows several Alpina BMW Series entries from the last few years, including the B4, B5 and B7. Each is an enrichment of a production design that dives deeper than mere performance tuning could allow. Alpina is essentially a BMW partner, and their models are focused and profoundly enhanced revisions of existing models from the automaker’s stable.

The newest B3 follows the B3 Touring, a luscious-looking wagon which raised eyebrows in Frankfurt only a month ago, and made a very convincing argument for the reestablishing of the sports wagon to automotive market relevance. The sedan keeps the Touring version’s tweaked BMW 3L I6, which produces 462 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque, enough to take it to nearly 190 MHP. It comes with an automatic 8-speed ZF gearbox.

Like the B3 Touring, it is designed for high performance in a long-range context. In that way, it is intended to represent an alternative to the M3, despite being outfitted with the same production engine. In the U.S., however, the track-inspired M3 will have to do, as the B3 versions are not destined for these shores.

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