My 2001 Alpina B10 V8 Touring

[E24man]

Bought 12 years ago and through some ups and downs it's now back to it's best again...

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Individual Steel Grey with Individual Silver Grey extended leather and anthracite birch wood trim.

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It was the UK Alpina importers, Sytner, 5 series Alpina demonstrator for 2001. 347bhp 4.6 V8 with Switch-Tronic gearbox and steering wheel gear change. The full spec is pretty high if anyone is interested and I have added to the original spec over the years with some decent upgrades.

[wagons ho]

So nice to have Alpina's available to you over there.
It will be a few years still before e39's can be imported to the states.
I've seen e36 and e34's come over, but would have to consider a left hand drive when one comes up.
For now, fake alpina, with a 4.6 ready to go in.
Over here we have to settle for Dinan upgrades. Not sure which is better.
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[E24man]

Having the Alpina's available is nice but you have to rely on people with very deep pockets to buy them initially. Because there is only one importer, Sytner, there is effectively no price competition and subsequently absolutely zero chance of a discount unlike BMW who can offer huge discounts, even on genuine ///M cars.

The E39 was actually one of the better priced Alpina cars for its time with a B10 V8 Touring being £57,000 in 2001 (about $83,000) when the car it was based on, 540i Touring, was £44,000 - so just over 25% more for the Alpina. Contrast that to a few years before in 1995 when an E34 B10 4.6 Touring was £65,000 (about $103,000) and the 540i Touring was £40,000 - so over 60% for the Alpina.

Anyway - the original spec of my Alpina - it's one of just four right hand drive facelift cars and one of just 12 right hand drive B10 V8 Tourings made for the UK.

As I said, Individual Steel Grey paint and Individual extended Silver grey nappa leather and anthracite birch wood trim.
347bhp, 480Nm 4.6 litre engine, with Alpina gearbox.
Alpina front spoiler
Xenon headlights with headlight aim and wash.
Clear indicators all round
Alpina multi-function steering wheel with Switch-Tronic gear change and Alpina instrument cluster
Glass tilt/slide sunroof
TV tuner, Mk III CD SatNav, CD changer, AM/FM radio, widescreen monitor and DSP
Anthracite headlining
Auto dimming interior mirror
M5 folding auto dimming memory exterior mirrors
Electric front sports seats with heating and drivers memory seat
Electric memory steering column with comfort access.
Front cup holders
Sliding centre armrest with integrated Motorola mobile flip phone
Rear cup holders
Alpina car mats
Rear door blinds
Self levelling rear suspension and headlight aim
Staggered 19" Alpina alloy wheels
Automatic hydraulic tailgate
Rear Aero upper tailgate spoiler
Rear Alpina lower tailgate spoiler/bumper infill
Stainless steel Alpina exhaust with twin oval exhaust tips

With all that specified by the actual dealer/importer as this car was to be the Alpina 5 Series demonstrator for 2001 the car had increased from the list price of £57,000 to about £74,000 - about $107,000.

[E24man]

So nice to have Alpina's available to you over there.
It will be a few years still before e39's can be imported to the states.
I've seen e36 and e34's come over, but would have to consider a left hand drive when one comes up.
For now, fake alpina, with a 4.6 ready to go in.
Over here we have to settle for Dinan upgrades. Not sure which is better.
20200927_144912.jpg

We don't see much, if any, Dinan stuff in the UK but I have read a few threads about E39's, and some E38's, having the E53 4.6iS lump dropped in. It is essentially the M62B46 lump that Alpina designed for the E39 B10 V8 cars but with a different oil pump and the heads aren't polished and ported like with the Alpina. The great thing about the E53 lump is has the BMW designed metal headgaskets whereas the B10 V8 cars up to mid 2001 have what is delightfully termed an 'organic' headgasket - it's not quite as bad as it sounds - it does have metal rings for the combustion chambers but the rest of the gasket is essentially posh cardboard and nowhere near as good as the BMW E53 gasket.

An almost essential upgrade for all early E39 B10 V8 cars is to swap in the E53 gaskets for longevity, similar to the almost essential upgrade of the E34 and E36 Alpina 4.6 V8 cars which need to have the E39 M5 S62 gaskets swapped in for their 'organic' headgaskets.

[jp5Touring]

Beautiful Touring, need more pictures