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BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe Tries On an Alpina B4 Suit, and It's Not Just for Size

The BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe is about to become a much more interesting proposal in the premium compact four-door coupe niche, as Alpina is preparing its own version of the car.
Alpina B4 Gran Coupe 24 photos
Photo: CarPix
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Naturally, it will be dubbed the Alpina B4 Gran Coupe and will feature the typical looks, interior tweaks, dedicated chassis setup, and a punchy engine under the hood. Think of it as the unofficial BMW M4 Gran Coupe, albeit with what is expected to be a more comfortable ride over the normal M3.

We’ve seen the first spy shots last summer, and a couple of months later, a prototype was taken to the Nurburgring for some more fine-tuning. Fast-forward to present day, however, and our spy photographers have snapped yet another tester in the open, and it didn’t have any camouflage on.

In a side-by-side comparison with the Bimmer, the Alpina B4 GC looks just about the same up front. Nonetheless, we’d expect the final production model to sport a different bumper, and perhaps an apron. The side skirts do not seem to have been changed either, yet at the back, it has a new bumper, cleaner-looking diffuser that might also look different by the time the car premieres, and quad exhaust pipes. These, combined with the Alpina-branded brake calipers, as well as the typical paint finish, tell us that we are indeed looking at the B4, and not an ordinary 4 Series Gran Coupe.

The latest intel suggests that it will be based on the M440i xDrive, whose 3.0-liter turbo-six is good for 369 hp and 369 lb-ft (500 Nm) of torque. With Alpina’s tuning trickery, the engine should develop 455 hp and 516 lb-ft (700 Nm), identical to the B3 Sedan. The extra oomph should drop the 0-62 mph (0-100 kph) sprint time from 4.7 seconds in the M440i to less than 4 seconds. As for the official unveiling date, your guess is as good as ours, but since the camouflage has started coming off, it shouldn’t be long until it premieres.
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About the author: Cristian Gnaticov
Cristian Gnaticov profile photo

After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s.
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