News 27-12-2023 Stephan: ‘It will never be this fun and brutal again’ Together with Frank, Stephan goes through the past car year on board the BMW M3 Touring…. 51

I made a comparison test with the BMW M3 Touring with an Alpina B3 Touring. That is also something that will disappear in the future. The last Alpina was announced this year, the special BMW builder (no, not a tuner) has an intake bell and a crankshaft in the logo and will simply disappear due to its incorporation into BMW as a separate brand within the BMW Group. The Alpina B5 GT launched this year is the last of the Mohicans. As an enthusiast, you should seize every moment you can take advantage of to ride such a tour de force of motorcycle construction. I realized it again in September, when I drove the Ferrari Roma Spider along the south coast of Sardinia. One of the last Ferraris without electrification. It is these types of cars that were the icing on the cake for me. I have nothing against electrification, but at times like this I do notice that EVs will never appeal to me as much as cars with combustion engines. I have one myself and the car I am most looking forward to in the new year is the new Mini Cooper with electric drive, so in that respect I have already surrendered to it. But it will never be as fun as it was.

A day with Team Traffic Rotterdam in the old and new SIV.

What was as fun as I ever imagined it was a day of riding with the police SIV. More than thirty years ago, when people asked me what I wanted to be, I answered that I wanted to join the traffic police. Being lord and master on the highway in a police Porsche seemed like something to me. The Porsches haven’t been around for thirty years, and I would now have to settle for an Audi A6 Avant. But what a profession these men and women have, really impressive.