Take a look at the new BMW 5-Series you REALLY want

The Alpina take on the new BMW 5 Series is revealed as Alpina take the M550i and Touring to deliver the new Alpina B5 – and the diesel Alpina D5.

There’s a very strong argument that the only car you will ever need is the BMW 5 Series Touring which, if you aim high, comes with 4WD, more power than you’re ever really going to use and a degree of practicality you’ll never tire of being surprised by.

The fact the 5 Series Touring drives like the very well-sorted saloon, looks understated and doesn’t make the statement a big SUV does – whilst doing everything much better than an X5, and without the disapprobation – seals the deal. And if you don’t want the practicality of the Touring, you can always get everything else by buying the saloon.

But there is one way to do better than a 5 Series Touring, and that’s to grab the Alpina take. And now, with a new BMW 5 Series here, there’s a new Alpina take to with the B5 petrol and D5 diesel.

Of course, it’s the Alpina B5 you really want, and it starts as an M550i before Alpina endow it with a bit more power and torque – it has 613bhp and 590lb/ft of torque – which is enough to get the Touring to 62mph in 3.6 seconds (the saloon takes 3.4 seconds) on the way to 201mph. Which is proper supercar performance.

The usual Alpina trick of firmer springs and adaptive dampers and tweaking of other systems and the addition of big brakes makes sure the drive is as good as the promise, and the 20″ Alpina alloys are, as ever, understated and appealing (and a pain to clean). But do delete the Alpina decals down the flanks.

If parsimony is your thing – despite considering forking out serious change for an Alpina in the first place – then you can go for the D5, which offers the same as the B5 but with an oil-burner under the bonnet. But despite that it’s still good for 62mph in 4.4 seconds and a top speed of 176mph, and if you don’t use that performance too much you’ll see heading for 40mpg on a run.

What more could anyone want? Well, if you’ve got £90k plus to spare.