E39 Alpina 4.6 & 4.8 vs E39 Carwow YouTube Race

[Iamthebull]

This just got posted today. I love when Carwow still includes older vehicles, including our beloved E39's.

[TiesTorN]

was just watching it

funny m5 is always the last one... guess its driver sucks.

[Iamthebull]

was just watching it

funny m5 is always the last one... guess its driver sucks.

Traction control is what killed him.

[crdiscoverer]

I have a friend with a pre-facelift B10 and off-the-line it feels quicker than an M5, autotragic and all, so I'm not surprised. What surprised me was how good the less powerful Alpina did and how much lighter they are vs the M5. That I didn't know.

Did Alpina tweak those automatics to shift faster? Or are they bone stock?

Traction control is what killed him.

That 1st -> 2nd shift on wet asphalt is a bitch. You could hear and see the M5 bogging down right there.

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

Perhaps a dry track may have seen the M5 perform better? !

Yes, Alpina do tweak ECU settings for the gearbox, there's more knowledgeable Alpina guys around who will know more and which sorts of parameters too, and for some reason, I vaguely recall different internals to the gearbox compared to a normal 540i ?!

I did semi enjoy the B3S convertible we had in our family fleet for a short stint of about a year a decade or so ago, it was a 330i when driving normally, at the upper rev range is where the performance was which I didn't like as the car would be making lots of noise/screaming - like the E46 M3 does. I prefer the power and torque of the V8.

I did have the great experience of going from here in West London to the Nurburgring for a long weekend in a friends B10 V8S Touring about a decade ago! accompanied by a lightly stripped out and bigger brakes only E34 M5. Was a memorable weekend and the drive there, a few laps around the ring and drive back in the V8S was awesome!

Still prefer an M5 though!

Cheers, Dennis!

[philly98540]

That M5 looked off. Slow 1/4 mile time and sluggo at shifts. Something off there.

[BimmerBreaker]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Alpina cars have a higher stall torque converter too...

M5 was definitely not fairly represented in this test though. Needs a better driver for a fair comparison. Or better yet just timed runs with the same driver in each car

[E24man]

Alpina gearboxes are quite different to the standard BMW fare with a high stall torque convertor and torque convertor lock-up in each gear so that you get almost a true manual when in Switch-Tronic mode.

The driver of the M5 is actually a professional driver - he was the Stig in the Top Gear days of Clarkson, Hammond and May so he knows how to drive cars properly.

The video confirmed what I'd always thought about the Alpina V8 and V8S against the M5; on a dry day and providing the M5 driver nails the take-off and gearchange perfectly you might see the 0.1/0.2 second advantage over the Alpina cars but in real life and combined with Alpina's conservative power output reporting of that era the difference can be almost impossible to find - put simply the Alpina owner can simply mash the loud pedal and you'll struggle to find the difference between that and the M5.

The embarrassing thing for the M5 and the B10 V8S was the brakes; the M5 has larger floating discs and the B10 V8S has a stupidly expensive and bespoke Brembo set-up - I can forgive the B10 V8 as it has standard 540i brakes. Just front disc and front pads for the B10 V8S is now around £1600 - heaven help you if you need new calipers.

All in I would say that was a fair showing for each of the cars even though the Alpina power figures quoted in the video are off though. The B10 V8 is a facelift car so has 347 bhp, the B10 V8S has just 28bhp more with 375bhp and the M5 the 400bhp. As I said earlier though - Alpina quoted figures that were often very conservative so the actual margins are very closer between each of the cars giving the results you see in the video.

The major advantage of the Alpina B10 V8 and V8S though is that they were available as a Touring - this is mine...

IMG_5683.jpg.946afde08e461dc42c79a9823aa54456.jpg

IMG_5681.jpg.d036e107d1cd1d8cc314b053df7c7816.jpg

Try doing this with a saloon...

IMG_5694.jpg.873c6670b42fec91afc7079138417581.jpg

[crdiscoverer]

The video confirmed what I'd always thought about the Alpina V8 and V8S against the M5; on a dry day and providing the M5 driver nails the take-off and gearchange perfectly you might see the 0.1/0.2 second advantage over the Alpina cars but in real life and combined with Alpina's conservative power output reporting of that era the difference can be almost impossible to find - put simply the Alpina owner can simply mash the loud pedal and you'll struggle to find the difference between that and the M5.

This is true from what I've seen as well. My friend's B10 is a monster when it comes to simply mashing the throttle and going fast. You don't have to think if you're caught in the wrong gear, you don't have to nail every single shift, it's consistently quick every single time. Try that with an M5 and as seen above, in the real world even a pro driver can't be faster than a properly set up automatic. That being said, he's selling his B10 and just got an M5 and I would have done it the same. If I were to keep the very best E39 for a long time, I'd choose the M5 every single time.

As for the brakes, it just goes to prove that tires are the defining factor. BBKs, floating calipers, million pistons, etc. only work provided you're giving them enough road grip. Better brakes can also dissipate heat better but in a single stop like Carwow does it's irrelevant.