First coming to limelight in March 1989, Alpina at the Geneva motorshow introduced their fastest car in production, a four door sedan, the B10 Bi-Turbo, based on BMW 535i.
Taking two years to develop costing $3.2 million in R&D.
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Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo is a 3.5 litre, twin-turbocharged six cylinder engine from a 3.4L twin-turbocharged BMW M30 I6 is definitely one of the best turbo-charged engines ever.
BMW M30 engine was dismantled in a hitch it's stock pistons were replaced with forged mahle units, two Garrett T25 water-cooled turbochargers, also adding a Bosch Variable boost control that is adjustable from the driver's seat which has a range of 0.4-0.8 bar.
B10 Bi-Turbo fuel injection and ignition are reprogrammed Bosch Matronic.
Upgraded from standard M30 engine delivering 208hp from 5700 rpm and 305 Nm at 3000 rpm to 355 hp at 6000 rpm and 520 Nm at 4000 rpm controlled by a 5-speed Getray 256 manual transmission gearbox.
In terms of performance, Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo is placed in the same league as "the red head," Ferrari Testarossa.
In an issue of RoadandTrack magazine in September 1991, Paul Frère a former 24 Hours of Le Man wrote:"For me this is the car... I think this is the best 4-door in the world." Having driven a race-prepped BMW2002s, Paul Frère was able to set lap times beating a contemporary Porsche 911S.
In a follow-up to RoadandTrack's World's fastest cars shoutout, Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo was fast enough to be placed in company of Ferrari F40, Lamborghini Diablo and RUF Porsche TR2.
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Starting as a typewriter manufacturer, the Buchloe-based company moved into motorsport under the direction of Scion Burkard Bovensiepen.
In their early motorsports efforts, BMW turned to Alpina after being impressed by the fine fettle work done on the 1500.
With E34-chasis,four round headlights, twin kidney grilles and a silhouette well balanced between greenhouse and sheet metal; which would be called a BMW 5 -series by the average bystander, Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo is one to set the Autobahn ablaze that could become an inferno.
Only 507 built from 1989-1994.
Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo was with contemporaries like the Ferrari 348, Porsche Carrera 2 or Acura NSX are no match for it's speed.
The front engine, rear wheel drive would go on to become the fastest production sedan in the world at the time of it's introduction.
Independent Performance Test results
- 0-100 km/h (62.1 mph): 5.2 seconds
- 0-200 km/h (124.3 mph): 19.7 seconds
- 0-400m: 13.2 seconds
- 0-100m: 24.6 seconds
*0-60 mph (97 km/h):5.1 seconds
*0-100 mph (161 km/h): 11.6 seconds - Standing 1/4 mile (402m): 13.6 seconds at 107 mph (172.2 km/h)
- Top speed: 179.2 mph (288.4 km/h)