Purchased my B10 10 years ago today

[nealpina]

The most pleasurable experience in the B10 must be ALPINA 50th Birthday celebration at Buchloe. I realised the true power of this beast on the autobahns. I started off driving the car as if I was on the UK Motorways missing out gears, but quickly was redlining through every gear and the power delivery was just amazing. On the way home I had a nice stretch of autobahn, I therefore just put my right foot to the floor, I was not aiming for the car’s top speed, but when I looked at the TomTom it said 260KMH which is 162.5MPH and I could feel there was more power available.

I love the long shift gearbox, the clutch, and most people who haven’t driven the B10 do not understand that this is one of the few manual cars which is effortless to drive in traffic. Due to the limitations of the E39 handbrake - hill starts are interesting at times. The LHD wipers is limiting in the rain. Even with these and some other minor design oversights these can be quickly dismissed due to the driving pleasure of this ultimate car. Do I regret not having a V8? Not at all there is something really special about this straight six engine. I respect the V8 engine, and if my B3 was a manual or I had purchased a B8 4.6 there would have been a good chance I brought a B10 v8 instead because of the Switch-Tronic gearbox. Due to how special my B10 3.3 is, I don’t feel the necessity to replace it with a V8

There are only a few cars which I have driven that tick all the boxes of me being tempted of owning instead of my B10, but I still can’t see myself selling my B10 or B3 because I am still passionate about them and the ALPINA brand. The most noticeable car which does tick all my boxes is a Porsche Panamera S 4.8 in either form a rare manual or PDK.

My B10 will be 20 years old next year but is still one of the nicest and ultimate cars to drive

[brett]

Nice write up Neal

[Alpina Jim]

Congrats Neal. 10 years already, I remember when you bought your B10 and it shocks me that 10 years have passed by. Mind you it is 17 years of B10 ownership for me in November, time sure does fly.
I like your delicate description of the effectiveness of the B10 handbrake on hills, mine is pretty useless to be honest. In fact it is probably the worst handbrake I have had on any car. Otherwise a 20+ year old B10 is a great car to own and I still feel as though I am driving something special when out amongst modern vehicles.
I am envious of you getting to that sort of speed on an autobahn, my dream is to hit the magic marker of 150 one day.
All the best for many more years, and many miles of smiles.

[nealpina]

Nice write up Neal

Congrats Neal. 10 years already, I remember when you bought your B10 and it shocks me that 10 years have passed by. Mind you it is 17 years of B10 ownership for me in November, time sure does fly.
I like your delicate description of the effectiveness of the B10 handbrake on hills, mine is pretty useless to be honest. In fact it is probably the worst handbrake I have had on any car. Otherwise a 20+ year old B10 is a great car to own and I still feel as though I am driving something special when out amongst modern vehicles.
I am envious of you getting to that sort of speed on an autobahn, my dream is to hit the magic marker of 150 one day.
All the best for many more years, and many miles of smiles.

Cheers guys

I know only seems like yesterday Jim. Your car will reach 150 mph easily

Will say one thing using Octane 100 which I used in Germany does make the car feel faster, compared with 99. The car did it’s party trick when I first filled 100 Octane, like it did with 99 for the first time. Conk out as soon as it started, but restarted fine when I turned the key about 2 seconds later. No expert I assume the car never had such a big bang

[greenelekta]

A car that ticks all/most of the box's is a rare thing. So a great choice for you Neal. Enjoyed your write-up

[nealpina]

A car that ticks all/most of the box's is a rare thing. So a great choice for you Neal. Enjoyed your write-up

Cheers.

However most will say that a V8 Touring tick all of their boxes