How does this not have more views? This is well researched material! It's weird, I live in Germany and adore Alpina and classic BMW - but I never came across this total unicorn of a car.
Great Video Dr. The B8 is the peak off from car engineering in the 90‘s ! This is a piece of art with a V8 that has stunning performance as well ! Fuel consumption not bad either ! I own a E36 Alpina B3 3,0l Coupé - Stick !!! It’s a mad Maschine and also drives sooo well ! I get 28 mpg and I’m not sleepy driving ! From the engineering point of view , were the M50 with Alpina Mods , such as Pistons and Combustion chambers , the state of the art ! Those are German build Hemi - engines ! Super power super efficient!! By the way the E36 M3 3,0l Is not as agile and handy to drive ! The B3 outperforms the M3 in any point ! Topspeed almost identical , cause M3 has 200 revs more !! The M3 just sold better in Germany cause of the overall noise it’s producing , inkl the intake and exhaust noise . With the B3 , you need to spec your exhaust a little bit , but than it even sounds more rad and fat than the M3 ! Or lets say , it’s just different but also has a very satisfying noise to Motorsport ears !! Greets from Germany 🇩🇪 Mr . T.
Great info about the Alpina and really enjoy your videos! Keep them coming. FYI. Just some clarification about your table comparison. Here is the breakdown of official published times: 1. M3 S50B30 euro 0-100 km/h = 6.0s (about 5.9s 0-60) 2. M3 GT 0-100 km/h= 5.9s (about 5.8s 0-60) 3. M3 LTW = ??? 4. M3 S50B30US 0-60 = 6.1s 5. M3 S52B32 0-60 = 5.7 6. M3 S50B32 euro 0-100 km/h = 5.5 (about 5.4s 0-60) Most if not all the US magazines back then used a 1-foot roll out to measure 0-60 and 1/4 mile times which affects the time for these cars by showing them to be 0.3 seconds faster. Depending on the car it's like measuring a 5-60 mph time. That's why you should not rely on them as accurate times. Also euro hp rating differs slightly from US measured hp. For example the S50B32 M3 is about 316hp as would be measured here in the US. Was there ever a published options list from Alpina for the E36?
That's a gorgeous car! I didn't know that Alpina offered a full leather interior for their E36 variants. It really makes the interior look much more premium, compared to a regular E36.
I love your channel and I love your cars! Thank you for sharing. I am a huge BMW fanatic in a big wagon lover. I have a total of six wagons of which all but two or BMW. I do own E34 M5 Touring and just bought a 1996 E36 320 M Package car who will be receiving an S54/6MT swap. I would love an Alpina E36 V8 wagon. It must be epic!
It's said that Alpina engineers did over 40 construction changes to accomodate V8 under its bonnet...last year one coupe version was sold for nearly EUR 70K... I think the estate is best way of using its potential...
A technoviolet wagon sold in Switzerland for about 70k CHF 2 years ago. Low mileage examples would obviously demand high prices, but most are well used. There was a point where these cars dropped to about 20k EUR
I plan on doing a drive and comparison video with my B3 3.2 once the B8 is sorted out. It's down on power from bad knock sensors and potential vacuum leaks. Only fair to do a drive vid when it's running optimally :-)
I'm curious to see how is the front sway bar solution on the B8, would be good to see a sequel with an overview from under the car, sway bars, oil pan, etc...
I was the guy who found out about the Fiat Ducato brake pads. But just go with the EBC Yellowstuff ones, they are way superior to the original brake pads.
EBC doesn't ship to the US since they have a US branch and don't offer the Alpina pads. I will be ordering a set to bring home next time I'm in Europe.
Congratulations, I'm happy for you ^^ If you have any questions, I might be able to help you further E.g. an original b8 always has scratches on the engine cover if he doesn't have one, the engine was already out. Sry for grammatical mistakes, my english is not that good. 😅
Thank you! How can I contact you if I have questions? I would be interested to hear your thoughts and experiences. Are you referring to scratches on the engine cover from it touching the hood?
The base car for the first B8’s 4.0 were the 325i and were lately sold to japan, the 4.0l performance of the engine was not much better than the euro 3.0l S50b30 M3 so Alpina decided to put the 4.6l m60 from the e34 b10 4.6 into the b8 to competition the new euro 3.2l M3 with the s50b32 engine.
No issues. It's not a drift car and as long as the bushings are in good shape, it should be fine. I've only heard of issues with subframe mounting points breaking if a car is being tracked and/or the bushings aren't in good shape over a period of time. These cars are over 20 years old so rubber parts need to be replaced.
sorry to spoil your fun but this wasn't a difficult swap. my mate has a RHD 318iS with a 540i engine swap and the only mildly difficult part was the steering u joint section... we simply made one to mock up clearance then had a mate make a billet one in a lathe. the manifolds are just e34 v8 ones then make a dual exhaust which goes into a backbox at the rear with a central silencer wherever you like. the engine mounts were simple to fabricate. he used a mishimoto m3 rad as it was lying about with an m3 reservoir and moved the oil filter housing and abs. he uses e46 330ci brakes up front and that was it. sorry to burst your bubble. but rhd is harder to do this on due to the rack so we find it laughable all this nonsense alpina claim about firewall clearancing on a lhd and custom everything lol. the engine has so much room to fit in there it's like having 2 m44 engines side by side. if you put a 3.15 ratio diff in it'll fly BTW haha. it's just utter nonsense the only reason bmw didn't do it as no one would have bought an m5 etc then if this came out.
Maybe this is so, but there is also the potential factor of being a car manufacturer means you got to have very different considerations when building a car, compared to doing it yourself. This can explain a lot.
@@GoldenCroc nope it's just marketing bullshit so you have to buy a 5 series to get a v8 saloon/touring as they know full well if they'd offered the v8 from factory everyone would have just bought a v8 saloon/touring e36 over a e39 if they wanted a 4 door varient v8 BMW...
@@GoldenCroc well actually swapping one into a 'harder to do' rhd e36 vs believing bollocks on the internet gives you an unsurprising insight versus sucking off bmw/alplina when it's clear they just wanted to force you to buy a 5/7/8 series to get a v8... ignorance is bliss eh! when you've actually done it come back to me!
@@otacon4065 Why even reply when your mind is already made up? I made a perfectly valid point of DIY vs manufacturer being different from the beginning, which cant be ignored even if one doesnt believe it, but you just blew it off entirely. Furthermore, swapping things doesnt have anything to do with what you wrote, since according to your logic, even if its as easy as putting two lego pieces together, BMW could just simply not offer the V8 in a 3 series, and the job is done. This is done all the time with other features without needing any justification. Therefore, your argument is illogical.
This is why I sometimes don't understand BMW. Some guys in a garage can put a V8 in E36. We have them in Latvia. Alpina could do it as well, but BMW couldn't. Same with why didn't they put turbos on M50B25 motors from factory, but Japanese did...
You can't blame BMW. Deviations from production line workflow is massively expensive. It's why the B8 cost 40% more than an M3 at the time. BMW is in the business of mass production and making money with shareholders to answer to. Alpina can just justify their own business case and if the boss says do it at all cost, it gets done.
As Dr tran said, of course they "could", but a big car manufacturer have very different considerations than a small garage or tuner/small production volume company as Alpina.
@@bmwalpina4628 Agreed. Sad that BMW never jumped on the wagon craze like Audi or Mercedes. I can't wait until the E61 M5 Touring is 25 years old and I can import one then manual swap it 😀
"Run rings" big enough that a suboptimal choice of tire brand/model could entirely mitigate it, or more. Considering that, I find that choice of wording a bit too hyperbolic to be honest, even though it might be par for the course in many places.
It's very difference experience. I'd love to get a Euro S50B32 one day to add to my collection (The B8 is my 4th E36). I don't drive on the track much these days, so Alpina fits my use case more :-)
Having lived in Europe twice, I never complain about fuel prices in the US. It's about $6.50 USD per gallon now and I just think "still cheaper than Europe in normal times"
@@ljubomir021 I disagree, my -92 525i or -97 540i wasnt anything out of ordinary consumption wise, if anything they were quite good compared to their rivals. Whats your reference?
this is so fascinating - it’s like a whole other world of e36s i never gave much thought to. thanks for putting this together, awesome video!
Glad you enjoyed it! Good luck and have fun on your build! Always fun to see E36 content these days.
How does this not have more views? This is well researched material!
It's weird, I live in Germany and adore Alpina and classic BMW - but I never came across this total unicorn of a car.
What a beautiful car! Love from Germany from a former alpina employee!
Never even heard of it crazy it’s absolutely stunning
I love that one of these tourings is in the states. Amazing car!
Thank you for documenting this!
It would also be really cool to have Doug Demuro do a video on this car
Agreed! I've already emailed him but it's easy to miss given the volume I bet he gets.
Great Video Dr.
The B8 is the peak off from car engineering in the 90‘s !
This is a piece of art with a V8 that has stunning performance as well !
Fuel consumption not bad either !
I own a E36 Alpina B3 3,0l
Coupé - Stick !!!
It’s a mad Maschine and also drives sooo well !
I get 28 mpg and I’m not sleepy driving !
From the engineering point of view , were the M50 with Alpina Mods , such as Pistons and Combustion chambers , the state of the art !
Those are German build Hemi - engines !
Super power super efficient!!
By the way the E36 M3 3,0l
Is not as agile and handy to drive !
The B3 outperforms the M3 in any point !
Topspeed almost identical , cause M3 has 200 revs more !!
The M3 just sold better in Germany cause of the overall noise it’s producing , inkl the intake and exhaust noise .
With the B3 , you need to spec your exhaust a little bit , but than it even sounds more rad and fat than the M3 !
Or lets say , it’s just different but also has a very satisfying noise to Motorsport ears !!
Greets from Germany 🇩🇪
Mr . T.
Nice purchase. Thanks for the video, saw the feature on your car in the CCA magazine.
thanks!
Love my S50B32 Euro but this 4.6 is solid piece of machinery as well :-D
Love old Alpina's. The gentlemen's BMW.
Great info about the Alpina and really enjoy your videos! Keep them coming.
FYI. Just some clarification about your table comparison. Here is the breakdown of official published times:
1. M3 S50B30 euro 0-100 km/h = 6.0s (about 5.9s 0-60)
2. M3 GT 0-100 km/h= 5.9s (about 5.8s 0-60)
3. M3 LTW = ???
4. M3 S50B30US 0-60 = 6.1s
5. M3 S52B32 0-60 = 5.7
6. M3 S50B32 euro 0-100 km/h = 5.5 (about 5.4s 0-60)
Most if not all the US magazines back then used a 1-foot roll out to measure 0-60 and 1/4 mile times which affects the time for these cars by showing them to be 0.3 seconds faster. Depending on the car it's like measuring a 5-60 mph time. That's why you should not rely on them as accurate times.
Also euro hp rating differs slightly from US measured hp. For example the S50B32 M3 is about 316hp as would be measured here in the US.
Was there ever a published options list from Alpina for the E36?
Thanks for the detail! I got my hands on an Alpina catalog from 1995 so I do have the official options list.
That's a gorgeous car! I didn't know that Alpina offered a full leather interior for their E36 variants. It really makes the interior look much more premium, compared to a regular E36.
At least until the substrate under the leather starts breaking down like every other e36 😅
An excellent insight and beautiful Alpina! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you!
Awesome video! Awesome car!
super cool car, thanks for explaining. fwiw it was a little hard to hear with the background music.
I love your channel and I love your cars! Thank you for sharing. I am a huge BMW fanatic in a big wagon lover. I have a total of six wagons of which all but two or BMW. I do own E34 M5 Touring and just bought a 1996 E36 320 M Package car who will be receiving an S54/6MT swap. I would love an Alpina E36 V8 wagon. It must be epic!
S54 E36 Touring would be amazing! The ultimate E36 M3 build
Waiting for video how this unicorn drive and sound.
You’re a true petrolhead🤙🏻
I've hesitated doing a drive video because the car is down on power right now due to bad knock sensors. Hoping to get them sorted out soon :-)
@@doctor_tran take your time on that and prepare your car good. And of course take a tons of fun from working on this amazing car😊
It's said that Alpina engineers did over 40 construction changes to accomodate V8 under its bonnet...last year one coupe version was sold for nearly EUR 70K... I think the estate is best way of using its potential...
A technoviolet wagon sold in Switzerland for about 70k CHF 2 years ago. Low mileage examples would obviously demand high prices, but most are well used. There was a point where these cars dropped to about 20k EUR
Test drive vid would be great!
I plan on doing a drive and comparison video with my B3 3.2 once the B8 is sorted out. It's down on power from bad knock sensors and potential vacuum leaks. Only fair to do a drive vid when it's running optimally :-)
Great vid
Very cool car. I drive a manual E36 320i touring in the Netherlands. I love the design. And do you drive with German plates in the US?
The German plates are fake. I have my US plate on a suction mount on the rear window.
I saw your beautiful touring at Legends last week. How many Alpina 4.6 were produced in touring form?
Only 27 😎
I'm curious to see how is the front sway bar solution on the B8, would be good to see a sequel with an overview from under the car, sway bars, oil pan, etc...
Sure! I can certainly do an overview of what's visible under the car.
could you please do a video like this about the b3 3.2!! one of my all time favorite bmw cars & a true dream car.
Check out the video I did about a year ago while the 3.2 was still in Germany. It covers similar content.
I was the guy who found out about the Fiat Ducato brake pads. But just go with the EBC Yellowstuff ones, they are way superior to the original brake pads.
EBC doesn't ship to the US since they have a US branch and don't offer the Alpina pads. I will be ordering a set to bring home next time I'm in Europe.
cool car
Congratulations, I'm happy for you ^^
If you have any questions, I might be able to help you further
E.g. an original b8 always has scratches on the engine cover
if he doesn't have one, the engine was already out.
Sry for grammatical mistakes, my english is not that good. 😅
Thank you!
How can I contact you if I have questions? I would be interested to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Are you referring to scratches on the engine cover from it touching the hood?
The base car for the first B8’s 4.0 were the 325i and were lately sold to japan, the 4.0l performance of the engine was not much better than the euro 3.0l S50b30 M3 so Alpina decided to put the 4.6l m60 from the e34 b10 4.6 into the b8 to competition the new euro 3.2l M3 with the s50b32 engine.
Do you have a link to the parts catalogue? I'm looking for coolant hoses but can't find the part # anywhere
Nevermind, I just found it
I would love to have an e36 wagon
They are legal to import now ;-)
Nice video. I would prefer the background music to be turned down a notch or two, now it's hard for me to hear what you are saying at times.
How are the subframe mounting points coping with the insane torque?
No issues. It's not a drift car and as long as the bushings are in good shape, it should be fine. I've only heard of issues with subframe mounting points breaking if a car is being tracked and/or the bushings aren't in good shape over a period of time. These cars are over 20 years old so rubber parts need to be replaced.
Guy on longisland does wood trim repairs... he ususlly posts e46 trim sets on f.b.m.
Thanks for the lead. I'll try to find him.
Very beautiful car and the registration plate from Germany suits it very well. Was it originally registered by Alpina with it?
It's a fake plate 😎 but the previous owner did have "b846" on his local town's plate
is that car really registered in germany? Didnt seen a Tüv Sticker in front and back since 2012
I had export plates while in Germany. Car is registered in the US now. I keep replica German plates on the car.
sorry to spoil your fun but this wasn't a difficult swap. my mate has a RHD 318iS with a 540i engine swap and the only mildly difficult part was the steering u joint section... we simply made one to mock up clearance then had a mate make a billet one in a lathe. the manifolds are just e34 v8 ones then make a dual exhaust which goes into a backbox at the rear with a central silencer wherever you like. the engine mounts were simple to fabricate. he used a mishimoto m3 rad as it was lying about with an m3 reservoir and moved the oil filter housing and abs. he uses e46 330ci brakes up front and that was it. sorry to burst your bubble. but rhd is harder to do this on due to the rack so we find it laughable all this nonsense alpina claim about firewall clearancing on a lhd and custom everything lol. the engine has so much room to fit in there it's like having 2 m44 engines side by side. if you put a 3.15 ratio diff in it'll fly BTW haha. it's just utter nonsense the only reason bmw didn't do it as no one would have bought an m5 etc then if this came out.
Maybe this is so, but there is also the potential factor of being a car manufacturer means you got to have very different considerations when building a car, compared to doing it yourself. This can explain a lot.
@@GoldenCroc nope it's just marketing bullshit so you have to buy a 5 series to get a v8 saloon/touring as they know full well if they'd offered the v8 from factory everyone would have just bought a v8 saloon/touring e36 over a e39 if they wanted a 4 door varient v8 BMW...
@@otacon4065 Seems you got your mind made up. Carry on, then.
@@GoldenCroc well actually swapping one into a 'harder to do' rhd e36 vs believing bollocks on the internet gives you an unsurprising insight versus sucking off bmw/alplina when it's clear they just wanted to force you to buy a 5/7/8 series to get a v8... ignorance is bliss eh! when you've actually done it come back to me!
@@otacon4065 Why even reply when your mind is already made up? I made a perfectly valid point of DIY vs manufacturer being different from the beginning, which cant be ignored even if one doesnt believe it, but you just blew it off entirely.
Furthermore, swapping things doesnt have anything to do with what you wrote, since according to your logic, even if its as easy as putting two lego pieces together, BMW could just simply not offer the V8 in a 3 series, and the job is done. This is done all the time with other features without needing any justification. Therefore, your argument is illogical.
This is why I sometimes don't understand BMW. Some guys in a garage can put a V8 in E36. We have them in Latvia. Alpina could do it as well, but BMW couldn't.
Same with why didn't they put turbos on M50B25 motors from factory, but Japanese did...
You can't blame BMW. Deviations from production line workflow is massively expensive. It's why the B8 cost 40% more than an M3 at the time. BMW is in the business of mass production and making money with shareholders to answer to. Alpina can just justify their own business case and if the boss says do it at all cost, it gets done.
As Dr tran said, of course they "could", but a big car manufacturer have very different considerations than a small garage or tuner/small production volume company as Alpina.
Produced only with manual gearbox...
yup! The manual box as the same internals as the Euro E36 M3, E46 M3, E34/E39 520i/M5, and E31
@@doctor_tran E39 M5 last one with only manual... Touring should have been released!
@@bmwalpina4628 Agreed. Sad that BMW never jumped on the wagon craze like Audi or Mercedes. I can't wait until the E61 M5 Touring is 25 years old and I can import one then manual swap it 😀
@@doctor_tran E60/1 Manuals were produced only for US CANADA market...
@@bmwalpina4628 Only E60, E61 M5s were never produced with a manual.
Ultra rare, but e36 M3 euro s50b32 would run rings around this on a track day.
That’s not the point of any Alpina. Comfort and top speed is what Alpina is all about.
"Run rings" big enough that a suboptimal choice of tire brand/model could entirely mitigate it, or more. Considering that, I find that choice of wording a bit too hyperbolic to be honest, even though it might be par for the course in many places.
It's very difference experience. I'd love to get a Euro S50B32 one day to add to my collection (The B8 is my 4th E36). I don't drive on the track much these days, so Alpina fits my use case more :-)
you are not afraid of being stopped by police, when you are driving with Euro Licensplate ?
I have a US plate mounted on my rear window. The state I'm from only requires a rear plate.
Yeah 4.6 litre, won't be filling that thing any time soon
This thing is thirsty... ordinary bmw's of that era are thirty...
Having lived in Europe twice, I never complain about fuel prices in the US. It's about $6.50 USD per gallon now and I just think "still cheaper than Europe in normal times"
@@doctor_tran 1,70 ltr in the UK, it's never been this high 🙄, if I do my math right, that's over 9 dollers a gallon in the UK, wild
@@ljubomir021 I disagree, my -92 525i or -97 540i wasnt anything out of ordinary consumption wise, if anything they were quite good compared to their rivals. Whats your reference?
dear lord. talk about obsessing over one car. great video but a little much lol!!