BMW's most performance-hunting division, the "most powerful letter in the world" M subsidiary, is known for many things, but not for sleeping on its laurels when it comes to motoring excellence. However, before BMW built its own go-fast department, the München carmaker relied on a different name to put more German power to the ground. Alpina is that six-decade-long associate and its creations are getting the CGI touch of imaginative wish-upon-a-turbo manifest.
Courtesy of virtual creator Mike Dog (__mikedog__ for keyboard socialites), an Alpina B7 – the luxury long-wheelbase limousine – gets revamped into a fabulous-and-overly-manly rocket. Granted, the base of this project was an already exhilarating design, and simple – but effective – add-ons only make it so much greater.
A simple widebody kit – consisting of nothing more than fender flares – and a boisterous ducktail spoiler on the rear deck lid do the job. Add a front and rear diffuser and massive 20-inch BBS Super RS forged wheels, and spray-coat everything in pearlescent pink.
Now that's a car for when Barbie gets the chair of the Federal Reserve board – but until then, the infinite internet is all the space this marshmallow laser will inhabit (for now). Fortunately, the B7 can only donate the design for now, as a practical way of transmuting horsepower into Terabytes hasn't been invented.
Photo: Instagram/@__mikedog__
But we can dream, can't we? The B7 is Alpina's take on the 2016 BMW 7 series (G11 generation) – an excellent base to start building racetrack limousines on – and the air suspension works in the hexadecimal world. Click the video below to see the imagination-permitted fruit crawling on its belly. The real-deal Alpina B7 inherited the same feature from the G11 Bimmer.
But that's the beautiful part of Computerland – nothing is impossible, and Mike Dog's 2020 Alpina looks more than happy to lay down on the asphalt. Perhaps it's just preparing for a devastatingly explosive launch to pay homage to its 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged square V8. Well, almost square, with a bore of 89 mm and a stroke of 88.3 (3.503 / 3.476 inches).
But that's not what an Alpina is about, the geometry of the cylinder, but the physics it bends when put under full throttle. The regular 7 Series BMW extracted 444 hp (450 PS) and 479 lb-ft (649 Nm) from the 90°-banked V8. Alpina does things differently but in a hair-raising exhilarating way.
Photo: Instagram/@__mikedog__
Tweaked by the high-grade German performance taming manufactory, the same engine pays through its nose. But, in the world of engines, the currency is speed and power, not precious metals or artificial conventions. The Alpina B7 is a big spender of horsepower. 600 is the magic power number, with the torque standing at 590 lb-ft (608 PS and 800 Nm).
A virtual reality Alpina B7 has no speed limits – or any other sort of limits imposed on it – but a real reality car must obey – albeit loosely – some traffic rules. 3.6 seconds for a standing-start sprint to 62 mph (100 kph) and 205 mph terminal velocity (330 kph).
Not bad at all for a car putting 2.2 tons (unladen weight) on the ground through all four wheels, thanks to a blitz-fast eight-speed ZF automatic transmission. And, if you get the impression that the video is exaggerated when showcasing the lowering Alpina, think twice. The self-leveling suspension has a 35-mm (1.5-inch) travel and will automatically drop 15 mm (0.6 inches) when the car hits 140 mph (230 kph) – or when the driver selects Sport+ Mode.
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
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