Belmondo

wagens good life---go to the office, read eriks posts....

Doctodd33

Finally....a BMW with some torque!

T

Erik

Thanks


pssst, what does moot mean ?

What you write is true. ALPINA is NOT a part of BMW as far as I know, but the cooperation is so close they actualy produce the cars on their normal lines. Pretty close cooperation if you ask me. I guess BMW / ALPINA have decided that their solution fit their philosophy, and aLPINA want to be independant. ALPINA is 100% owned by the Bovensiepen family, split between the father and his children.
BTW: ALPINA is not aloved to do anyting with the M models of BMW, only tiny little exception is then they took the old E30 M3 and put in their own 3,5 ltr engine with a lot more power and torque than the original 4 cyl engine.

By many considered as one of their best efforts.

ALPINA is sold in many countries all over the world and are using ONLY BMW dealer as contact points.
BTW:In the year 2000 ALPINA delivered their car number 2000 to Japan.

The decision NOT to target the US marked is for once decided by the fact that ALPINA does not want to get bigger than they already are. They produce 500 cars/year and if they target the US that would not be enough. The only car ALPINA sendt to the US lately is the Z8 Roadster in ALPINA version with an Autobox to satisfy your wish for an Automatic version of the Z8.



And concerning recognition, I think ALPINA have the same level of both respect and recognition at least in Europe and in the other countries it is sold to, but probably not in the US.


I see you point and actually agree, but the fact is ALPINA are officially registered as an automobile manufacturer by the German Federal Motor Vehicle Registration Agency. And also on the B10 BiTurbo ALPINA made several changes to the body structure to take the extra strength of the Turbo engine.



True.
I guess the fact that MB owns the company give them acces to all or at least lots of the competence, marketing and finance resources in the group.
ALPINA stand on their own feet and would probably have to stretch their resources to really target the US marked, but as I wrote before, they do not want to increase in size.
The price of makeing their hole range US approved would probably cost to much to.
Since both AMG and ALPINA use the some body shell as their weaker brothers the crash test should be easy, but emission and probably some of the other rules you have is a challenge for both of them.


But as said ALPINA is markedet on many continents.

TVR really make some amazing cars I did not know they where unreliable, I only know they look good and are very fast indeed. To compare with Lotus is unfair on the part of Lotus.... Lotus is leight cars with small engines, TVR is leight cars with enormous engines......

I actually raced one once, and it was fast, just not fast enough



Put aside who is owning who and what marked they are sold in, the AMG and ALPINA is a perfect competition.
The fact that the ALPINA is not sold in the US has nothing to do with it.
Both are amazing cars targeting the same costumers, more or less.

BTW here is a link to a video I made when I was in my M Coupe ( Euro version 321 Hp) and got totaly humiliated by the 20 year old B7. We start at app 90 mph and stop at app 125 mph.

http://home.online.no/~erik.jo/1.mpg
2 other vids on this site.
http://home.online.no/~erik.jo/

Belmondo

While Alpina may call themselves " a small manufacturer" I don't see
how anybody can take that seriously----Delorean was a small manufacturer, British TVR is a small manufacturer, Alpina is not. There are no Alpina without BMW, like there would be no RennTech or AMG without MB.
Without BMW Alpina would be reduced to selling their "classic" looking wheels.
May be a good tuner, but a "small manufacturer" of cars?

Belmondo

Oh yes, now my memories are coming back to me. Back in 1963 when I bought 1500 and BMW came out with 1800 not long after that I RUN to Burkhard Bovensiepen......
I bought his tuning kit for 980 DM including installation and raised performance of my 1500 to parity with the newer 1800.
He told me, if I remember correctly, since it was so long ago:" My goal is to become a BMW tuner but to be called a manufacturer".
He loved BMW's, he loved tuning them but his dream always was to be called a manufacturer.

AMGfan

A review of the B5 was in the latest issue of EVO ("No Limits" issue with the Carrera GT/Vauxhall Monaro/Caterham going ***** to the wall in no speed limit locations like Autobahn/Australia/Isle of Mann).

They are targetting potential AMG owners.

xscream

Fun that you read it
That article was what created this thread

Erik

I have not seen that article, any place I can download.

Was it made any kind of performance test or was it just a review of the cars?

mashimaro1985

bmw bmw bmw ( bleh ) my friend have a 760 in indonesia haha they got trapped in the car got all locked doors wont open opens wont come down engine wont swtich on LOL!! you name it.

there were like cops amblance and the bmw tech there trying to help in the end they still had to break in and safe them lol so sad! not only my friends it was in the news that a 745 did that to after a weeks that the 760 happened! haha. my friend was given a brand new 760 from the factory and they didnt take it instead went to benz and bought s600.

ok stock m5 and stock e55 a mag tested the e55 is faster in straight line then the m5 and m5 better in handling thats about it! the new m5 is ugly basically i dislike the whole new 5 series look and 7 to now the 3 got ugly.

bmw is only nice as a drivers car benz is more passenger car if you know what i mean! but hey benz has came a long way love them great cars in and out quality issues are being fixed my cls55 i think has good quality!

Erik

And this has what do with the topic in the thread ?

I am sure if you do a search you will find lots of funny things happend to benzes as well..


Thats wrong, you wont find any mag confirming that.
If you want to use mags as a refernce, the exact oposit is the case.
And please do not make this into a M5vsE55 performance thing. That has been done on to many threads here already.

Whats still open is what will happend on a US 1/4 track.




..... and since find it more entertaining to drive rather than being a passenger....... I like the Bimmer more. :p its a matter of personal preferences

AMGfan

It was just a review of the car...a full blown performance test wasn't done.

Correction on that EVO issue...it was an Ultima on the Isle of Mann rather than a Caterham.