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| Shoot out: BMW M5 vs Alpina B5 |
| The shout route |
| styling |
| The power difference |
| The verdict |
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M5 vs Alpina's B5: Float like a butterfly... or sting like a bee?Source: BMWcar magazine
What would you like better: a V10 with 500bhp or an almost similar powered V8 in your big and heavy saloon. Well, the guys from BMWCar Magazine have tested two racemonsters for you and they are sharing their deepest feelings with you in their revealing review. Both BMW's newest M5 and Alpina's B5 (on the base of a 545i) are tested to see which car is more up-to-the-challenge, and you might be surprised by the way these gentlemen think about both of em. Be ready to read a good story about two greats cars on an even greater site ;).
Click the read more button below to read the rest of this 1000bhp story about the greatest saloons on the roads.
It's the 1000bhp shout-out we've been waiting for - BMW's M5 vs Alpina's B5 - let the battle commence
Editor Harper pulls alongside me in the M5. He gives me a nod and I drop the B5's hammer.
Mother of God! This thing is unbelieveable: it's still smoking its tyres at the top of second gear on a dry road and Bob's aged reactions mean he's sucking up the Alpina's dust. I am reminded of a comment by Martin Brundle during a GP commentary: power is how fast an engine can punch; torque is how hard it can punch. The Alpina could lift Lennox Lewis clean off his feet before depositing him in an unconscious heap on the canvas. It's awesome.
And that's a worry because I was convinced that the M5 would have the legs of the Alpina. Now I know that in the real world, the Buchloe Bomber has the edge. It's muscular supercharged V8 out grunts the M5's V10 by 179Nm (132lb ft), while all but matching its output level. On the drive down from Sytner Nottingham the B5 has proved a mighty overtaking tool, despatching other cars with the merest of foot flexes and providing the kind of smooth ride and calm refinement that has been an Alpina trademark for four decades.
But I always knew that the B5 would impress in isolation: I have never driven a bad Alpina and on first aquaintance the B5 seems to be the best creation since the B10 Bi-Turbo. But today it's not in isolation, it's here with a car that I have described earlier in this very magazine as 'the most accomplished road car on the planet'... A car I am unashamedly in love with.
