Alpina B5 Bi-Turbo (2011) launches

The Alpina B5 Bi-Turbo 2011 debuted at Goodwood

If you went down to the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend you may well have come across Alpina’s latest offering – the Alpina B5 Bi-Turbo – which, following the news yesterday that BMW have retired the current generation (E60) M5 and that you’ll have to wait intil next year for the new M5 – is the only way to hop in to a brand new ‘Hot’ 5 series for at least the next 9 months.

Not only is the Alpina B5 the only really quick 5 series on the market now, it will also be a lot less ubiquitous in the long run than BMW’s own M5. A lot to be said for that. But does it offer as much as the M5 will? No, but it does offer as much as the last M5 did.

On offer is a smidge over 500bhp and a useful 516 lb/ft of torque from the 4.4 litre, twin turbo V8 lifted straight out of the B5′s big brother the Alpina B7. That power is enough to give a 4.5 second 0-60mph on the way to a top speed of 191mph (which is where the Alpina will always win over BMW’s M5).

The B5 also gets a custom 8-speed auto ‘box developed by ZF just for Alpina together with a fettled suspension setup offering shorter springs and new control arms which, together with electronically adjustable suspension, offers an altogether sharper experience. You also get a set of very desirable 20″ Alpina Alloys.

Alpina has lots to say on the B5 which you can check out in the press release. What we don’t have yet is a price, but we’ll update here as soon as we do.

More tempting than an M5, I feel. But I know most won’t agree.

Update: Better late than never, the 2011 Alpina B5 BiTurbo will cost from £71,950. Before you start on the options.

By Cars UK