2020 delivery for Alpina B3 sedan in Australia

THOSE who like their BMW M3s in a different flavour are in for a treat next year when Alpina offers not only the B3 Touring but a B3 sedan as well.

The niche BMW tuner has announced that its new B3 sedan will arrive hot on the heels of its Touring wagon stablemate in Australia in the second half of 2020 at a price to be fixed.

Revealed at the Tokyo motor show last month, the sedan shares all of the M3-beating kit of the B3 Touring, including the new S583.0-litre bi-turbo straight six engine pinched from the BMW X3 and X4 M Competitions but tweaked to produce 340kW of power and 700Nm of torque – down 35kW in power but up 100Nm on the BMW factory version.

The extra torque comes courtesy of new turbochargers as well as unique cooling and exhaust systems.

Putting the power to the tarmac via an all-wheel-drive system, the B3 can make the sedan dash from zero to 100kmh in just 3.8 seconds – 0.1 seconds faster than the Touring and 0.3 faster than the current M3.

Performance is not the only name of the game, according to Alpina, which says the new B3 will return fuel consumption of 11 litres per 100kmon the European WLTP fuel cycle.

Alpina Australia national sales manager Phil Jeffery said the company was proud to be able to offer both the sedan and wagon variants of the B3 in Australia.

“The new B3 Sedan now gives our customers the option of a traditional sports sedan with the incredible mix of performance and luxury that Alpina is renowned for,” he said.

Gear changing duties are left to a tuned ZF eight-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters, while the tweaked version of BMW’s X-drive all-wheel drive system is rear-biased and features a limited-slip differential in the pursuit of agility.

The interioris awash with custom Alpina in-house leather with the option for a fully customised Lavalina leather interior including leather piping, specific stitching, embroidery and embossing to customer specifications.

The interior is also adorned in vehicle-specific production plaques with metal emblemsintegrated into the floor mats and seat backrests.