I have had dreams of driving an Alpina. Visions of triple-digit speeds across Germany in a decal-decked super-sedan. In these premonitions, the car looks a lot like this one. And I think I need to turn them into reality at some point.
Alpina has long been in the business of taking what BMW calls its final product and giving it a little… more. More aero, more engine, more wood, more wheels. You may remember the number they did on the Z8, or maybe their more recent work with the 6 and 7 Series which you could actually find on the American market.
In this case, the mad scientists at Alpina took your basic E34 535i (nope, not an M5), and used two Garrett T25 turbochargers to pull another 150 or so horsepower out of it through a five-speed manual transmission. Outside, decals and bigger splitters let everyone know that you didn’t have a normal 5er.
With a price tag of around $US100,000 ($153,247) new, it wasn’t going to win over masses of buyers, especially when the M5 undercut it by about $US40k. Only a few more than 500 B10 Biturbos were built and this one is unit number 53.
If you’re wishing you managed to snag one of those original 500 cars, you can bid on this one, 81,000 kilometres on the odometer, at BringATrailer here with no reserve. I’m interested to see how it does this time around after it went for $US77,000 ($118,000) back in 2016. Maybe I’ll catch it on its third time around. I know the hallucinations won’t let up until I do.