The Alpina B8 xDrive is a comprehensively different setup compared to its M850i counterpart. The damper rates have been recalibrated, and an extra comfort plus mode has been added, allowing the body to move in a beautifully fluid way on the motorway. New springs have also been fitted, and the tuning of the active anti-roll bar is different as well. This ensures that the suspension can handle both the roughness of everyday roads and the smoothness of highways with ease.

The new wheel and tire combination is another notable feature of the Alpina B8 xDrive. It is the only eight-series model, including the M8, to wear 21-inch wheels and a bespoke rubber compound from Pirelli. While some might argue that 21 inches is too big for this car, it actually provides an ideal size for this particular vehicle. When cruising around, one would likely find themselves comfortable with something smaller, such as a B5 by Turbo-based five-series based car. However, when pushing the limits and reaching higher speeds, the Alpina's larger wheels and special tires allow for improved grip and handling.

One of the standout features of the Alpina B8 xDrive is its ability to permit movement and body roll while maintaining stability. The suspension rates are precisely judged, allowing for a harmonious balance between comfort and sportiness. When combined with the precision and intuitive gearing of the steering, this results in a car that is greater than the sum of its parts.

A key aspect of driving an Alpina B8 xDrive is its ability to "breathe" with the road. Unlike some performance saloons, which can feel detached from the driving experience, the Alpina embodies this idea perfectly. Its capabilities allow for a seamless connection between driver and vehicle, making it an extremely enjoyable car to drive.

However, when it comes to being an outright driver's car, the Alpina B8 xDrive still falls short in one crucial area: rear-wheel drive bias. While it can be switched on and off at will, the four-wheel drive system tends to be a bit more neutral than the M850i's setup. This results in a slight sense of balance that is not as pronounced as its counterpart's.

This lack of rear-wheel drive bias does not affect the overall driving experience significantly, but it does make some subtle differences. When working through corners in higher gears, one can feel the front axle pushing harder to maintain grip. While this is not a major issue, it does detract from the rear-wheel drive character that some drivers might be seeking.

Despite this minor quibble, the Alpina B8 xDrive remains an exceptional car for everyday use. Its precision and responsiveness make it a joy to drive, and its refinement ensures that it can handle even the most mundane tasks with ease. When paired with one of the great engine/gearbox combinations available in this class, the Alpina truly comes alive.

Ultimately, whether or not to consider an Alpina B8 xDrive before purchasing something like a Bentley Bentayga is largely a personal decision. While both cars share some similarities, they cater to different types of drivers and preferences. The Alpina's subtle approach and rear-wheel drive bias might appeal more to those seeking a sportier driving experience, while the Bentley's more overt performance and opulence may be better suited for those who value sheer luxury above all else.

In conclusion, the Alpina B8 xDrive is an exceptional car that excels in many areas. Its ability to breathe with the road, precision handling, and refinement make it a standout in its class. While it falls short of being an outright driver's car due to its rear-wheel drive bias, this minor issue does not detract from its overall driving experience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthree years ago mercedes amg gave us the gt63 four-door and it seemed a strange idea it wasn't that we didn't like the concept of an all-new v8 mega saloon from one of the biggest names in the business it was more what the letters in the name suggested that amg had taken the rawness and aggression of the gt coupe and attempted to translate it into more luxurious four-door form surely that approach could only yield a car with one seriously confused personality or maybe amg was going to try and create something really quite different in spirit of a gt coupe in which case why bastardize the name either way we were skeptical but it's fair to say we all underestimated amg just a little bit this car was so loaded with engineering complexity it was like some sort of rube goldberg device it had four-wheel drive four-wheel steering a hugely sophisticated electronically controlled locking differential in the back that is tuned in to all four wheels in terms of torque vectoring and esc input honestly it was a recipe for disaster but somehow they've pulled it off how they just managed to meld everything all that technology into a cohesive hole and this is a car that just sounds obvious goes where you want it to go responds to the throttle how you want a four liter 630 horsepower twin turbo v8 to respond it's just great fun to drive and best of all it feels properly long snouted and rear driven low slung in the manner of a proper gt car which after all is exactly what this is supposed to replicate except for people who really need four doors and four proper seats and if you told me that they were gonna take an e-class platform strengthen it up a little bit and then just throw every bit of technology you can throw at a big fast saloon car i just wouldn't have believed that it would be this good to drive and as i say this cohesive a natural feeling i think that's what makes this car so great it just feels natural it feels smaller than it is both axles just they're on the same wavelength with a lot of cars you can feel that four-wheel steering sort of initiate either through slower corners where the wheels are going in contrary motion or through the faster corners where they where they act in unison but but not in this amg it just works and it goes and the steering has got real feel to it as well that's another huge surprise we learnt when this car first came out it's got that sort of incidental road chatter but also lovely feeling of weight and response i mean honestly they they pulled it out of the bag with this car and i don't think it's over egging the pudding to say this is one of the most underappreciated cars of recent years you don't see many so surely if you're looking for something that feels a lot like a a proper gt car looks quite a lot like a proper gt car and damn it sounds a lot like a proper gt car this is the only game in town but not so fast because in the new b8 grand coupe alpena is giving amg something to worry about this is exactly the sort of car they do very well in buffalo and like the amg the b8 uses a big v8 with the turbochargers nestled within the v of the cylinders a 4.4 liters a unit is larger than that of the amg but doesn't make quite as much power or torque 613 brake horsepower 590 pound foot for the b8 plays 630 brake horsepower and a ludicrous 664 pound foot for this top spec amg gts 4-door that said both cars can haul themselves to 62 miles an hour in roughly the same time it takes a mclaren f1 as ever with alpena there are details the v8 grand coupe might be based on the m850i grand coupe but the zf gearbox is reinforced and that n63 v8 is given much more cooling apparatus to cope with the higher power and torque outputs and sustained high speed autobahn running the suspension has also been comprehensively revised and the torque split between the axles tweaked to improve stability in truth it's every bit as complicated as the amg but does it feel as coherent we'll soon find out as for the way the b8 looks you can judge it for yourself but the usual alpena signifiers are all here the draping front splitter deco set pin stripes the little bootleg spoiler quad exhausts no longer by akrapovic sadly and a set of enormous forged multi-spoke alloys next to the pebble-like amg it's a brute but also perhaps a little more elegant as for cost well brace yourself after options both cars are more than 150 grand that you do get real exclusivity for your money the amg is already a rare enough site on british roads and b8 sales over here will almost certainly remain in single digits so welcome to the inside of this 155 000 alpena v8 grand coupe as ever with alpina there's a lot to talk about inside the car before you even get to the mechanical stuff starting with this lovely lavalina trimmed steering wheel honestly the cutters and the trimmers in buklow are absolutely world-class this is uh this lever comes from a herd of cows in bavaria i think rolls royce is the only other manufacturer in the world to use uh lavalina lever got the whole dashboard which is trimmed in mourinho and also the seats it's an incredibly plush place i think when the 8 series came out people were a little bit disappointed but the architecture was a bit boring but i think that combination of just strong ergonomics and then alpena's lovely leather finish it's just such a killer combo it makes the amg feel a bit caricatured and frankly a bit rattly as well obviously you've got the plaque on the transmission tunnel this is b8 009 so very early car as you'd expect and here's the main thing these new aluminium cnc machined paddles that are frankly better than anything bmw or bmw m is fitting to their cars at the moment and they just look so neat lovely cool to touch firm and they've got nice action as well full marks alpena for that kind of innovation because it would have been so easy just to keep the old switch tronic buttons which frankly were never much good and the idea as ever with alpena and you have to remember this is exactly the sort of car that alpena does really well if you look back to the 70s and 80s stuff like the b7 turbo coupe and then obviously their v12 versions of the 7 series in the 90s they were cars that really gave the driver a lot of satisfaction but but did it in a way that was just it slowly unfolded and i think that's what we're experiencing with this car as well it is very much a slow burner first impressions i mean it doesn't have the dialed in feel of the amg straight from the off you might get in this drive it a few miles down the road and get out thinking so what and to be honest that's kind of the point with alpena there is a beautiful linearity to the steering they've actually elevated this quite considerably from the regular eight series and it just allows you to thread the car so neatly it's a big car i'm not going to pretend that it shrinks around you to any dramatic extent but it's really not a difficult car to place and so much of that comes through the steering so alpena they play with the gearing they obviously play with the front suspension and the results are subtle but equally undeniable as for the engine this is essentially the same unit they use in the b5 by turbo which is to say it's exceptional at what it's designed to do it's not it's not the blood and thunder unit of the amg it's a lot more civilized and cultivated than that than that amg unit the throttle pickups clean and then it just spins out in really sweet free revving fashion he's a great unit this and the way it throws this 2.1 tonne car down the road just has to be experienced to be believed now our penis started off in the 60s obviously burkhardt bovens even the founder modifying uh bmw engines vanoya classer carburettors crankshafts but these days it's difficult to say whether their speciality lies more in engines or suspension and it's no different with this car it's a comprehensively different setup this suspension to what you'll find in the m850i the damper rates are recalibrated there's an extra comfort plus mode which really really lets them relax and lets the body move in a beautifully fluid way on the motorway new springs is fitted the tuning of the active anti-roll bar is different as well and the suspension's also been tweaked and it's not just an increase in negative camber or tow or all those sort of very fine adjustments but manufacturers can make there's actually new metal in the suspension and the result is a car that doesn't struggle to find its meter on most a or b roads it doesn't dial you into the surface like the amg does but frankly neither does it labor the surface there's a new wheel and tire combination this is the only eight series including the m8 to wear 21-inch wheels and alpena's own bespoke rubber compound from pirelli i have to say i think 21 inches is too big for this car it's a little bit too when you're just mooching around you'd probably be better off in something like a b5 by turbo based five series based car but then you start to up the ante a little bit and it starts to come together in a really really big way what you get with this b8 is a car that permits actually quite a lot of movement quite a lot of vertical movement an appreciable degree of body roll but the rates at which that happens are just so beautifully judged it's that when you combine that with the precision and intuitive gearing of the steering that you get something that's greater than the sum of its parts with this car linear steering linear engine response really fluid body control it is a lovely thing but it just takes a while to get under its skin it's a bit of a cliche to talk about a car breathing with the road but when it comes to serious performance saloons i don't think any manufacturer does it better than alpena does it and that's the case here as for being an out and out drivers car i mean straight away for something that's designed to sit at 180 miles an hour on an autobahn all day do it comfortably you know and at the same time can be easily driven at low speeds like the gearbox just going from driving to reverse in this car is so much easier than it is in the amg which has to scratch its head a little bit every time you want to do a three-point turn this car the calibration of all that mundane everyday stuff is just done so nicely i've got one criticism of the way this car behaves in terms of its handling it's just that i wish they tuned the four-wheel drive system to be a little bit more rear biased you can tell that this is a natively longitudinally engine car with most of the power going to the rear of course you can but i just think compared to the amg it's just a little bit neutral and sometimes flavorless by comparison when you're really working it through through second and third gear corners you can feel that front axle working a little bit harder just pushing the nose just very very subtly we're not talking about outright understeer here just that sort of slight sense of the car's balance is a bit forward leaning the amg just does so much right in that regard it feels obviously it's got the ability to to go rear wheel drive only and disconnect the front drive shafts but even when you've got it in four wheel drive mode you get that sense that it's pushing from its hips through corners you get a lovely sense of of rear wheel drive balance and i think in the alpena if they chose to they could have gone further down that road with this car but obviously they're about stability neutrality very high speeds very big forces that might help you if you've got to do an emergency lane change a 170 on an autobahn but it just makes the cars fractionally more aloof when you're on a good b road and it's where the amg really gets one over this v8 grand coupe in the end and despite their on-paper similarities these cars are going to appeal to quite different types of driver the amg is brash but oh so capable too the alpena less obviously effusive more of a slow burner but it's so polished in its manners and for everyday use it has one of the great engine gearbox combinations for this kind of car does i ever give you the satisfaction of the real gt mccoy something like an aston db11 not quite but should you consider one of these cars before you go out and buy something like a bentley bentayga absolutely as for which is better if you'll permit the cop out for me head says alpina but heart says amg\n"