Comparison test BMW M3 Touring vs. Alpina B3 Touring – Double test

Have the BMW M3 Touring and the Alpina B3 Touring only been tested in the Netherlands?

The Alpina does, due to the lack of a license plate, with the BMW M3 Touring we also visit Germany.

Germany celebrates a long weekend, with a public holiday on Monday, so it is not surprising that the A31 connecting the Ruhr area with Emden and the German North Sea coast is busy this Saturday. I soon leave the straight asphalt stretch, so quiet at quiet hours, where the Dutch also want to reach top speeds. However, the short fierce accelerations from 130 to 140 km/h to speeds of around 250 km/h are already such exciting exercises that the M3 Touring, always an xDrive Competition, so with four-wheel drive and 510 hp, is a monstrous power station. A vehicle in front moves to the right, a push of the red M2 configuration switch on the right of the steering wheel and the powertrain is on edge, the sound is aggressive and the eight-speed automatic downshifts fanatically. The acceleration is insane. With the two red buttons you can make pre-programmed setting combinations for steering, brakes, drivetrain, sound, damping and things like that. There are so many options that it’s nice that you can set your favorite combination of modes with a simple button press if you need it immediately! The blows through the powertrain are brutal, the sound is penetrating and the switching moments at almost 7,000 rpm are better described as ramming than switching. 240, 250, 260 and hoppa, back in the anchors. Later in the day, on Autobahn 2 between Bielefeld and Dortmund, I see 287 on the digital display in front of me. That is the moment when the limiter, which is set at 280 km/h on this copy, should intervene gently.

Is the BMW M3 Touring fiercer than the Alpina B3 Touring?

Forgive the pointless but oh so exciting accelerations to the sometimes irresponsibly high speeds, but the M3 Touring makes me a hooligan. Like a good family man who gets too carried away by the behavior of players on the field during a match and is aroused by the atmosphere in a swirling football stadium. Would the Alpina B3 Touring that I had to hand in the day before and that could not be taken to Germany due to the lack of a registration, also elicit such behavior from me? I’m sure not. Not only the appearance of the B3 is much friendlier, also its character. Comfortable, relaxing, I know, that’s what Alpina has excelled at since the second half of the sixties, combined with a sea of ​​torque. When you experience it, you notice how special that character of Alpina is. Floating on a sea of ​​Newton meters, the B3 Touring can also be propelled to bizarrely high speeds, even to a top that is much higher than that of the M3. Alpina specifies a top speed of 302 km/h for the B3 upgraded for 2023. Unlimited. Knowing the nature of the beast, I would also go for it with the Alpina in Germany, I think if after a while I just direct the M3 to the right lane and set the cruise control to a relaxed 150 km / h for the autobahn . Still, the dose of adrenaline would be a lot lower. Everything about the Alpina is just much more civilized. It impresses just as much, but in a completely different way than the first M-powerstation since the M5 Touring of the E61. The Alpina impresses with its gigantic torque in the midrange. Alpina extracts no less than 730 Nm from the 3.0 six-in-line that stems from the BMW M340i, the fastest normal 3-series. That torque is therefore even 80 Newton meters higher than what BMW M gets from a 3.0 six-in-line with two turbos, which is a different engine, with the code S58 known to enthusiasts.

Is the BMW M3 Touring so hardcore?

But would the Alpina inspire just as much confidence at speeds of around 250 and up in the gentle curves of the autobahn? Back to yesterday when I drove the cars side by side. The Alpina has more body roll than the super stiff M3. Open the bonnets while parked side by side and the triangular strut brace to the front of the nose tells the story of the M3 even when stationary. As if the mighty 510 hp machine has been hoisted into a corset, to make the front as tight and stiff as possible. The M3 follows steering commands so directly that confidence is quickly high. A few weeks before this test I already drove the car on a track and it grew faster around me than the smaller M2 I tested on the same track at the same event. The M3 Touring is a hardcore machine. But also a car that constantly challenges you and that can be exhaustingly hard on pockmarked roads. That is clear to me now, after a few hours of pedaling through Germany.

What makes a 3-series an Alpina B3?

The M3 may have the striking nose of the M4 and be sprayed with the BMW Individual paint Unigrau, the B3 immediately stands out as Alpina. The classic Alpina-styling wheels, which are not standard by the way, and the lower lip with the brand name on it in large letters are landmarks for enthusiasts, in fact you no longer even need the equally characteristic striping on the side. At the rear, just like with the BMW M station wagon, four exhausts leave no room for misunderstanding about the potential. But the diameter of the pipes is smaller, and the bumper in which they are incorporated looks more normal. Now the M3 Touring also has a very big butt, with its four chutes, two on each side of a huge diffuser. And the huge muffler box is just too visible behind the bumper. The enormous track width and the tires in width 285 at the rear provide the typical M appearance. As if a normal 3-series Touring has been knocked around a completely different base, a base of a true sports car. There has been no outward restraint at BMW M for years, only the first M5 was perhaps a subdued sports sedan, but appearance has actually been predominant since the first M3.

How do the BMW M3 and Alpina B3 sound?

In the Comfort driving mode, the B3 sounds very modest next to the M3. An Akrapovic exhaust system doesn’t have to make noise, it turns out. The sounds get warmer in Sport and Sport Plus, remarkably enough the warmest in Sport. Then the Alpina wants to give real blows in the exhaust when lifting the gas, but even then it remains far from the sometimes flat and ordinary of what the M3 shows. In terms of driving modes and settings, it remains clear in the Alpina, with the Comfort, Sport, Sport Plus and Sport Individual modes, where you can pre-program your own preferred combination of response, steering, exhaust and damping, but not so extensively and down to the smallest detail. like the BMW M3.

What makes the Alpina B3 Touring special?

Perhaps the Alpina impresses the most in the Comfort position; with the damping on soft, the car goes over thresholds so gracefully that you almost forget that you are on the road with a 495 hp, 730 Nm delivering station wagon. Is this the executioner of a car that accelerates from 0 to 100 in 3.7 seconds and reaches 300 km / h? Give it a touch of gas and you will feel the enormous power of the six-in-line. The nose rises slightly, the numbers in the special Alpina display in the otherwise largely BMW M3-similar dashboard confirm it. No, the Alpina doesn’t nose dive as quickly on the inside of a corner, and yes, there’s more body roll, even in the fancier driving modes, but the civilization with which the B3 does its thing is first class. It almost seems as if the high standards of the absolute top class have trickled down to the mid-class segment, as if a touch of Rolls-Royce has been added to the DNA of the 3 Series. You can go really fast with the Alpina and on the autobahn you keep the nose of the B3 on the thick rear bumper of the M3, above 200 you may even put it past it with such a surplus of pulling power, but gentle curves loom on it then perhaps the confidence the M3 gives its driver will keep the Alpina from staying ahead of it.

The combination of the abundance of power and the attention to detail make the Alpina B3 Touring perhaps even more special with the arrival of the M3 Touring. The exciting and fanatical M is just as fast, but always lets you know that, with the B3 it is not so obvious.

What’s on the Alpina?

The M3 Touring is a powerful power station that will make it very difficult for the Audi RS4 and the Mercedes-AMG C63 Estate, and even surpasses them in terms of absolute sportiness. The B3 Touring remains in a class of its own. The adjustments make it heavy, with 1,955 kilograms, the Alpina even weighs 115 kilograms more than the BMW M station wagon. The B3 also has four-wheel drive, because the M340i Touring that serves as a base already has that as standard. And getting dressed can go a long way with an Alpina. If you order the Lavalina leather, for example, only 10,000 euros will be added to the price. The special leather of cows that have lived at an altitude where no mosquitoes can be found and where there are no barbed wire in fields or roads, represents the high level of finishing that the company, which is now a 100 percent BMW subsidiary, has been offering for more than half a century. Like the green-blue (the house colours) stitching in the steering wheel, the production number on the center console and the subtle Alpina logo on the trim strip on the dashboard are subtle references to which house this product comes from. Even when opening the luggage compartment, after all we are testing station wagons, we see that an Alpina mat covers the floor. An option of 243.70 euros that reminds you of the noble origin of this station wagon when loading things. Another thing, the skylight of 1,260.50 euros must be combined with the small roof spoiler just above the windscreen. You have to know it’s there, otherwise you’d overlook it. However, it is not possible to omit it because it could mean that during a fast drive above 250 km / h, the panoramic roof is sucked out in its entirety. That is why you cannot order the M3 Touring with such a provision. Studying the specification list of the Alpina B3 Touring is an introduction to the Alpina philosophy. For example, this test car has a high-performance braking system, which states that this detracts from the acoustics in the car. That’s Alpine. Everything for comfort. Only the best is good enough for the products, where different turbos are installed for the engines, for example. Turbos from the Dutch company Tachyon. As Pirelli supplies special P Zero tires homologated for Alpina, you can recognize them by the abbreviation ALP on the sidewalls. They are flatter than the footwear of the M3, but the comfort does not suffer.

What do these two power stations cost?

There is a difference of 14,000 euros between the two power stations, the BMW M3 Touring costs more than 174,000 euros, the Alpina B3 Touring as tested here comes to 160,525 euros. The M3 is a playstation pure sang, intended to make life difficult for RS4 drivers and Mercedes-AMG C63 Estate drivers. The Alpina B3 Touring owner does not get hot or cold at the sight of such another German powerhouse in station wagon packaging. Leave that wrought-up stuff… and so there is more than enough room for maneuver for the Alpina B3 Touring, despite the arrival of the first ever M3 Touring.