2018 ALPINA B5 Bi-Turbo Touring (and saloon) arrives in the UK

2018 ALPINA B5 Bi-Turbo Touring arrives in the UK as the world’s fastest Estate

The new ALPINA B5 Turbo Touring and Saloon – Alpina’s performance take on the new BMW 5-Series – arrives in the UK with prices from £89,000.

Alpina’s take on BMW cars is a subtle performance offering to deliver the sort of BMW which offers what the ‘M’ cars do, but with surprisingly less flash and more comfort.

The latest offering is the Alpina B5 Bi Turbo, which is Alpina’s take on the latest BMW 5 Series, and offers 600bhp from its V8 and properly impressive performance.

Under the bonnet is BMW’s 4.4 litre V8 but with Alpina tweaking, including two twin-scroll turbochargers, which delivers 600bhp and 590lb/ft of torque, enough to break 200mph and get to 62mph in 3.4 seconds (3.5 seconds for the Touring).

This time round the B5 comes with BMW’s 4WD to make sure it can put all that power down, rear wheel steering, active roll stabilisation, bespoke front wishbones, stiffer springs, bespoke adaptive dampers and, on the Touring, air suspension at the back.

This being Alpina, you can spec up the interior with all sorts of tweaks, but standard kit in the UK includes Nappa leather, ceramic controls, illuminated Alpina door sills and sports steering wheel, as well as the usual 5-Series stuff like BMW’s iDrive, Climate, Cruise and adaptive LEDs.

The Alpina B5 Bi-Turbo is now available in the UK, with the B5 Saloon costing from £89,000 and the B5 Touring from £91,000.

If you can afford it, the B5 – especially the Touring – is as good as a BMW gets.