BMW 3 series Alpina B3

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Tue 4 May 2004 13:03
BMW 3 series Alpina B3 - Miller
My cousin is in the process of part-exing his 320d for the above car. It is a 2000 (W) model with the "switchtronic" gearbox. Anybody own/ever driven one?

Seems to offer almost supercar performance and I am not sure he fully understands the running costs involved (not that I am jealous or anything you understand!)
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Thu 6 May 2004 12:41
BMW 3 series Alpina B3 - Chad.R
IIRC the Alpina (E46) B3 uses a slightly stretched version of the cast iron block from the E36 M3 and only uses single VANOS instead of the double VANOS variable valve timing head found on the later E36 M3 Evo. However you get there, somewhere around 280bhp/330lbft is pretty good from a 3.3

The Switch-tronic is simply a modified version of BMW's Step-tronic 5spd auto box allowing gear changes to be made from the steering wheel. As you'd expect the software has been tweaked for performance and I think there are some modifications to the torque converter to give a more precise feel.

At the time (99/00) it would have retailed for around £45K so not exactly a cheap car then and the running costs are likely to be considerable.

Chad.
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Thu 6 May 2004 14:40
BMW 3 series Alpina B3 - Miller
Thanks for that Chad. Incidently he is paying 20k for it and I imagine the 50k miles it has done will be nothing for that engine. Just hope his wallet can cope with sub 20mpg as opposed to 40mpg from the 320d!
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