Nealpina’s brief account of 2008 Factory Tour
Nealpina’s brief account of 2008 Factory Tour
As mentioned in the Alpina factory tour 2008 sticky/thread: Thanks to Andy, Kris, and Neil for organising an excellent and an amazing Alpina 2008 trip. Also it was good to meet new and similar faces again.
I arrived back late lastnight. Too tired to post and am still exhausted to write a long post therefore will let someone else write about the excellent factory tour.
My total mileage for the whole trip was 2146.4 miles (I did some extra sightseeing therefore left the previous Saturday). I also have a blurry photo of my car reaching its top speed which I will post later.
My car did not miss a beat apart from on the way to the hotel in Buchloe. I needed to charge my TomTom, I therefore removed the phone charger from the auxiliary socket and I received a shock. I said to myself not again have I blown the fuse like last year? I however placed the TomTom charger into the auxiliary socket and it charged – Chas you did an excellent job fixing it last years, cheers. My average cruising speed before I changed the chargers were between 130mph to 140mph. When I changed the chargers and received the shock I was traveling at about 60mph. When I went to reach higher speeds again the car felt like it was in ‘get me home mode’, I said to myself I must have blown a cylinder or something because last night I reached the car’s top speed and I have been cruising at about 135mph for over one hour. About 2000 meters away there was a service station, I therefore went into the services and restarted the car and everything was working fine.
On the way to the hotel in Buchloe the car’s engine temperature and rear diff oil became the highest I have ever read. The engine temperature was 119 degrees and the rear diff was a shocking 116 degrees – engine oil pressure was fine. Therefore when I went into the hotel car park I could smell burning from the rear and I thought I cooked the rear diff but it was the nearside rear pad/brakes. The reason to why the brakes were cooking is because of when people were overtaking from their lane to the overtaking (fast) lane they did not realised how fast my driving speeds were therefore I did need to brake hard. My driving and braking style was safe and smooth therefore not hazardous to anyone or to myself.
I arrived back late lastnight. Too tired to post and am still exhausted to write a long post therefore will let someone else write about the excellent factory tour.
My total mileage for the whole trip was 2146.4 miles (I did some extra sightseeing therefore left the previous Saturday). I also have a blurry photo of my car reaching its top speed which I will post later.
My car did not miss a beat apart from on the way to the hotel in Buchloe. I needed to charge my TomTom, I therefore removed the phone charger from the auxiliary socket and I received a shock. I said to myself not again have I blown the fuse like last year? I however placed the TomTom charger into the auxiliary socket and it charged – Chas you did an excellent job fixing it last years, cheers. My average cruising speed before I changed the chargers were between 130mph to 140mph. When I changed the chargers and received the shock I was traveling at about 60mph. When I went to reach higher speeds again the car felt like it was in ‘get me home mode’, I said to myself I must have blown a cylinder or something because last night I reached the car’s top speed and I have been cruising at about 135mph for over one hour. About 2000 meters away there was a service station, I therefore went into the services and restarted the car and everything was working fine.
On the way to the hotel in Buchloe the car’s engine temperature and rear diff oil became the highest I have ever read. The engine temperature was 119 degrees and the rear diff was a shocking 116 degrees – engine oil pressure was fine. Therefore when I went into the hotel car park I could smell burning from the rear and I thought I cooked the rear diff but it was the nearside rear pad/brakes. The reason to why the brakes were cooking is because of when people were overtaking from their lane to the overtaking (fast) lane they did not realised how fast my driving speeds were therefore I did need to brake hard. My driving and braking style was safe and smooth therefore not hazardous to anyone or to myself.
Oscar Wilde & Burkard Bovensiepen: I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
ALPINA B3 3.2 Coupe Switch-Tronic ALPINA Blue
ALPINA B10 3.3 Saloon Manual Mora Metallic
ALPINA B3 3.2 Coupe Switch-Tronic ALPINA Blue
ALPINA B10 3.3 Saloon Manual Mora Metallic
I forgot to mention about MPG but for the whole trip I average 28.8mpg and on the way home from Buchloe my average was 31.1mpg. Throughout Germany from Buchloe I would consider my average speed even with the heavy rain was something like 110mph, I believe my top speed was near to 140mph.
Here is the very blurry photo of my speedo indicating my car’s top speed 160mph. It took me about 9 attempts before I could take a photo because of either someone pulled out in front of me or I went into a speed limited stretched of the autobahn.
The reason for the check control light being on is because I had a lose rear bulb which is now fixed
Here is the very blurry photo of my speedo indicating my car’s top speed 160mph. It took me about 9 attempts before I could take a photo because of either someone pulled out in front of me or I went into a speed limited stretched of the autobahn.
The reason for the check control light being on is because I had a lose rear bulb which is now fixed
Oscar Wilde & Burkard Bovensiepen: I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
ALPINA B3 3.2 Coupe Switch-Tronic ALPINA Blue
ALPINA B10 3.3 Saloon Manual Mora Metallic
ALPINA B3 3.2 Coupe Switch-Tronic ALPINA Blue
ALPINA B10 3.3 Saloon Manual Mora Metallic
After several attempts I did say to myself this is insane but I needed to prove that my car can reach it’s top speed. I can safely say that I will not be doing this again! I have worn the t-shirt so to speak
Oscar Wilde & Burkard Bovensiepen: I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
ALPINA B3 3.2 Coupe Switch-Tronic ALPINA Blue
ALPINA B10 3.3 Saloon Manual Mora Metallic
ALPINA B3 3.2 Coupe Switch-Tronic ALPINA Blue
ALPINA B10 3.3 Saloon Manual Mora Metallic
Neal you are right taking that picture is insane
M2
520d F11 M Sport Touring
B10 V8 #240
Mini Cooper S convertible
220d M Sport convertible
MGB GT
MG Midget
520d F11 M Sport Touring (sold)
118d F20 M Sport(sold)
118d E87 M Sport(sold)
John Cooper Works (sold)
D3 Touring #183(sold)
M3 3.0 E36 (sold)
523 E39 (sold)
520 E34 Touring (sold)
318IS E36 (sold)
520d F11 M Sport Touring
B10 V8 #240
Mini Cooper S convertible
220d M Sport convertible
MGB GT
MG Midget
520d F11 M Sport Touring (sold)
118d F20 M Sport(sold)
118d E87 M Sport(sold)
John Cooper Works (sold)
D3 Touring #183(sold)
M3 3.0 E36 (sold)
523 E39 (sold)
520 E34 Touring (sold)
318IS E36 (sold)
Neal i really hope you had pukka oil in your engine because at 119 deg hardly any oil gives much protection at these temperatures!
Castrol 10/60 TWS?!
Sounds like a fun trip especially if the ring is involved!
Do the factory guys take an interest in your cars guys, a strange out of interest question!
Castrol 10/60 TWS?!
Sounds like a fun trip especially if the ring is involved!
Do the factory guys take an interest in your cars guys, a strange out of interest question!
Simon, I don’t fully understand oil grades but I did an oil change before the trip with Castrol Edge 0-30 and will do another one soon - as I will not be driving the car that much for the next couple of months. I do understand why BMW and Alpina do recommend 10-60 but this is mainly for cars built after 2001. As I don’t fully understand the grades I therefore am unsure if these are fair points: Alpina would have known how hot their engines will be on a hot summers day on the autobahn, and they recommend 0-30. If I did not have the Alpina auxiliary display I would not be aware of the readings therefore how many cars do reach those temperatures without their owner’s knowing.simon13 wrote:Neal i really hope you had pukka oil in your engine because at 119 deg hardly any oil gives much protection at these temperatures!
Castrol 10/60 TWS?!
As I don’t fully understand oil grades can Simon or someone else please put me straight with the this, cheers. I remember reading a thread sometime ago when a B5 owner max his car and his engine oil reading was higher, any thoughts?
Simon, by the way your C2 is looking cool
Oscar Wilde & Burkard Bovensiepen: I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
ALPINA B3 3.2 Coupe Switch-Tronic ALPINA Blue
ALPINA B10 3.3 Saloon Manual Mora Metallic
ALPINA B3 3.2 Coupe Switch-Tronic ALPINA Blue
ALPINA B10 3.3 Saloon Manual Mora Metallic
we got back last night... we left the Factory on Saturday afternoon and headed off to spend some time taking a slow road back via the black forest and Alasce and Champagne regions of France - stopped off via the Somme yesterday very sobering.
Total sucess for the Roadster and what surprised us more was after 9 days touring Germany and France was it's ability of still being able to fit in 18 bottles of wine and 9 litres of bag in the box wine at the hypermarket.
Total Mileage 2045 (which is surprising given that we didn;t exactly take the direct route back to Leicestershire and others living close to us seem to have had very similar mileages.
Average Fuel consumption for the full trip was 30.0MPG as displayed on the car OBC (haven't had a chance to calculate it any more accurately from the fuel receipts yet) pretty impressed with this given it's a petrol engine.
I suppose lighter car and manual box contribute to the better economy. This did include several high speed runs (tho didn't take it above 145mph as anyone who has driven a roadster will testify that it all gets a bit light upfront at these speeds (especially with all the weight over the rear wheels)
Average on the way to Buchloe was 33.7MPG!!
Not looking forward to cleaning the car tho.. looks like i've collected half teh flies from Europe on it's frontend.
Total sucess for the Roadster and what surprised us more was after 9 days touring Germany and France was it's ability of still being able to fit in 18 bottles of wine and 9 litres of bag in the box wine at the hypermarket.
Total Mileage 2045 (which is surprising given that we didn;t exactly take the direct route back to Leicestershire and others living close to us seem to have had very similar mileages.
Average Fuel consumption for the full trip was 30.0MPG as displayed on the car OBC (haven't had a chance to calculate it any more accurately from the fuel receipts yet) pretty impressed with this given it's a petrol engine.
I suppose lighter car and manual box contribute to the better economy. This did include several high speed runs (tho didn't take it above 145mph as anyone who has driven a roadster will testify that it all gets a bit light upfront at these speeds (especially with all the weight over the rear wheels)
Average on the way to Buchloe was 33.7MPG!!
Not looking forward to cleaning the car tho.. looks like i've collected half teh flies from Europe on it's frontend.
2011 BMW 520d M Sport Saloon
2008 BMW 120i M Sport 5 Door
Previous ALPINAs
1984 E28 B9 3.5
1989 E32 B11 3.5
2000 E39 B10 V8 Touring
2005 E85 Roadster S #344
Twitter: d4bmw (follow me for all the latest ALPINA updates and other car related guff)
2008 BMW 120i M Sport 5 Door
Previous ALPINAs
1984 E28 B9 3.5
1989 E32 B11 3.5
2000 E39 B10 V8 Touring
2005 E85 Roadster S #344
Twitter: d4bmw (follow me for all the latest ALPINA updates and other car related guff)