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I went to Sytner Nottingham the other day to drive its Alpina D3 demonstrator for work. For those not terribly au fait with Alpina, it is a registered German manufacturer in its own right, being provided technologies and bodyshells by BMW and then doing so much work to the car that it qualifies as a different marque entirely to BMW. Usually, it builds very fast, very rare and very luxurious petrol powered cars.
The D3 is not the company's first diesel (that 'honour' belongs to the E39 Alpina D10 Biturbo, a smoky old barge if ever there was one - I drove one once and it was comically crude but quick) but it is the first time an Alpina has undercut its equivalent BMW models on price - the Alpina is
Heh, I probably shouldn't do this as we've not gone to print yet, but here are a few pics of the car taken on the day then, Alex. They are very small though (only 100kb or so) as they were emailed to me. Bigger pics to come soon:
Aye, it's not bad. I should add that it was kind of... old-school diesel. I'm used to non-lag turbo BMWs (petrol or diesel) but the D3 is a little bit flat below 1500rpm and then surges at about 1700rpm. The other thing is it likes to rev to the redline, which is unusual for a diesel - it never runs out of puff.
Mind you, with a 5000rpm redline, we're hardly talking S2000 territory here!
Moff - I know what you mean, and I wasn't that fussed about driving it, and it did turn out to be nothing more than above average. But the marketing of it is interesting, especially after the Alpina Roadster S, the first semi-mainstream car they did. I wonder how long before Alpina starts to knock out a few more affordable models like it...
Or indeed do its own version of the twin-turbo petrol, a la 335i. Oh, wait a minute... I may have heard something on that one...
But for those people in the market for a 3-Series diesel, it makes a lot of sense. Rather than a slash-your-wrists depressing 320d SE with small wheels and some kit, or a hard-riding 320d M Sport with nothing on it.
02-05-2007, 06:49 AM
Alpina D3
. Maybe it's like buying a flat for the same price as a house on the same estate. 
