Alpina Roadster S ?

M

M5Sime

Member
 Berkshire
Hi Guys

I am new to the forum (said hi on the relevant page) and am looking at Z4s to replace our 3.0 Z3 individual...

There seem to be some interesting Alpina models instead.. The reviews were all very positive of them.. Any of you got one and had experience of either the M model or the 3.0 Sport??

Any ideas on residuals vs M model or a stock car??

The Alpina model is a superb looking car!!!

Cheers

Sime
 
The Alpina is a beast, fantastic car, I couldn't afford one when I bought my 3.0 but I've often wished I pushed the boat out for one at the time. Just remember 2 year warranty and limited insurance cover (not many companies cover them), otherwise no problems. Residually you'll lose a bit more than a 3.0 but not more (or much more?) than an ///M, I wouldn't have thought.

There are more than a few owners on this forum, do a search and you'll see, no doubt they'll be along soon to comment.

http://www.thealpinaregister.com/
 
The Alpina is a great choice with the engine and styling being the swaying factor when I bought mine. The only downside (if it's important to you) is that it doesn't come with an LSD as standard however that's an easy fix. Make sure it has the "Lux Pack" option which gives you all the expensive options in one package. Most that I've seen come with it. I'm not really bothered with residuals but the average price now of 20-25k is the same bracket that I bought mine in 2 years ago. Welcome to the forum by the way! :D
 
Curtis said:
The Alpina is a great choice with the engine and styling being the swaying factor when I bought mine. The only downside (if it's important to you) is that it doesn't come with an LSD as standard however that's an easy fix. Make sure it has the "Lux Pack" option which gives you all the expensive options in one package. Most that I've seen come with it. I'm not really bothered with residuals but the average price now of 20-25k is the same bracket that I bought mine in 2 years ago. Welcome to the forum by the way! :D
Click to expand...

I have seen the Lux pack adds Xenons and Nav etc. There is a nice looking one at a reduced price on James Agger's site.. Non Lux but 2006 plate. Most others are 2004. The LSD does not really worry me as this is for my wife mostly and my tail happy action or spirited driving is likely to be more minimal..

With the 285 rears and 19" rims the tyres will be expensive to say the least! More than my E39M5 I had. Do you notice the inner wheel spinning out power in harder turns then? Or is the lack of LSD more of a track issue?

I assume the car is an insurance grp 20 and fewer companies recognise the car is this the issue?

Warranty of 2years - Can this be extended like the main dealer BMW Approved one?

Anyone now think the ///M model is the preferred option? It has a nice M-Diff of course and some more chassis mods and that superb engine, but the Alpina looks better I think.
 
Shame it doesn't have the Lux Pack, that's probably why it remained unsold till 2006. Check the build date sticker on the inner wing, passenger side. It was probably built a lot earlier. The LSD isn't an issue unless your forever pushing the car out of the corners. The Alpina has seperate DSC ( dynamic stability control ) and DTC (dynamic traction control ), the DTC is meant to imitate an LSD. It's a poor substitute but it helps. If you fit an LSD as I have you have to keep remembering to switch the DTC off otherwise it's always in conflict with the LSD ie the LSD tries to do it's job but the DTC keeps cutting in and messing things up by trying to overule it. You can leave the DSC on though to stop you getting too sideways!

Standard tyres are 235/35/19 and 265/30/19. You can get a set of four Falcon 452's for £500 and they're fine for day to day use. I use them between track days and I'm very pleased with the handling and value for money. Of course if you want to buy Michelin's the price doubles but there's no need.

I'm insured through Tesco. £480 fully comp and protected NCD.

The main difference between the M and Alpina is the engine. The M engine is designed for high revving HP while the Alpina engine is all about torque. The M engine revs to around 8200rpm while the Alpina is 7200rpm however the Alpina engine produces 90% of its maximum torque from 2500rpm. This gives it a very smooth power curve and its much more user friendly day to day. You can accelerate smoothly from 25mph in 6th gear! Fuel consumption is amazing, I average 32mpg with daily driving and I'm no slouch. The other plus with the Alpina engine is maintenance. It has hydraulic lifters which never need adjusted unlike the solid lifters in the M which need shimmed regularily ( this was so it could reach it's 8200 rpm limit ) also the Alpina has a simpler and mostly trouble free single vanos unit. The Alpina is substantially lighter than the M too and has a higher top speed. The Alpina tops out at 170mph while the M is limited to 155. It's not often you need this kind of speed anyway but it's nice to know! Acceleration figures are very similar.

The Alpina is a very exclusive car which is good in some ways but it can be a pain when it comes to things like engine mods. Fortunatly I've been through all that with my modding fettish so if you ever want to know where to get something just ask!

I was offered the option of extending my warranty by BMW but I didn't take them up on it but it's available if you want it.
 
Great response Curtis! Thanks...

So most seem to have been made in 2004 and you are saying the Lux pack has really made a difference to this one (lack of). Are Aplina still making the roadster?

I am heartened by the insurance and the MPG. I also prefer the looks and exclusivity..

Is there a thread for your mods then? I am unlikely to do anything as 300bhp is more than enough for my good lady and my odd play. As for the shims, I recall this only too well with my E39 M5 and also the E34.. Just as shame the latter had all this setup and then had an overheating and headgasket issue costing me 2.5k

Cheers

Sime :D
 
M5Sime said:
Great response Curtis! Thanks...

So most seem to have been made in 2004 and you are saying the Lux pack has really made a difference to this one (lack of). Are Aplina still making the roadster?

I am heartened by the insurance and the MPG. I also prefer the looks and exclusivity..

Is there a thread for your mods then? I am unlikely to do anything as 300bhp is more than enough for my good lady and my odd play. As for the shims, I recall this only too well with my E39 M5 and also the E34.. Just as shame the latter had all this setup and then had an overheating and headgasket issue costing me 2.5k

Cheers

Sime :D
Click to expand...

Alpina stopped making the Roadster in time for the introduction of the Z4M. There were less than 400 Roadsters built and few made it to the UK so it really is an exclusive club. The Lux Pack was a bit of a no brainer if you ordered from new . It was £1900 and gave you over £4k worth of individual extras.

I don't think I've ever done a mod list but here goes.

Clear headlights, tailights and side indicators.
Aero sills
All badges changed to Alpina
Silver grilles.
Stubby aerial!
That's it for the exterior but it gets a bit more complex underneath.

E46 M3 rear axle with LSD and 3.62 ratio. ( Just rebuilt this with a brand new diff etc )
Shortened propshaft
Sachs clutch
TMS camber arms (rose jointed)
TMS inner wishbone bushes.
Powerflex subframe bushes and trailing arm bushes plus a rear limiter kit.
New CSL upper and lower rear spherical joints.
Intrax 1k2 coilovers with 80nm springs front and 50nm rear
Adjustable camber plates
H&R CSL adjustable anti roll bars with TMS adjustable links
330 ZHP front wishbones with TMS CSL bushes
Adjustable anti roll bar front links
AP 6 pot front brakes (cooled) and 4 pot rears with braided hoses and Pagid RS29 pads
E46 M3 front hubs with 10mm spacers
CSL rims ( I get away with fitting originals because of the M3 axle and front hubs )
OEM strut brace
Pilot Sport Cup tyres for the track and Falcon 452's for daily use.

Engine mods are minor

GruppeM intake
Remap
100 cell cats and straight through exhaust
A supercharger kit will follow sometime this year.

The only other thing I've done is update the satnav software, the interior is pretty much standard however seats and harnesss are being fitted in May/June

That's about all I can remember, as I think of more I'll add them to the list.
There should be some pics under a post I did about a Silverstone track day recently I'll add a link if I can remember how!


Here you go!!

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3458
 
WOW

When you say lots of mods in your signoff you are not wrong...

Clearly you feel there is much to improve around the base product of Alpina :-)
 
Absolutely! Everything is made to a budget and is therefore a compromise. For this reason few production cars ever reach their full potential. The Alpina was such a good base car it seemed a shame not to improve on it's already impressive ability's. There's always room for improvement, it's just a case of how far your willing to go. As I track my cars a lot it 's a worthwhile investment to me. If it were just a daily runaround then perhaps it would be a bit excessive.
 
Insurance situation seems to heave improved since I first bought my Alpina. Had a choice of just 2 insurers the first time but after Nationwide tried to fleece me on a renewal recently I found most of the search engines now recognise the car and I saved £400 without any real effort.

The James Agger car could be a 2006 (would be a very late Alpina) but as said it also could be it was built earlier and didn't sell on account of missing the Lux pack. Shame as I've heard good things about JA generally. There were a couple of good looking examples on Pistonheads recently.

Tyres have been the biggest expense on the car - just on my third set of rears, second set of fronts now in about 24k miles. Have stuck with the Michelins so that's £1100 odd quid a set. Wanted to switch to the new Goodyear F1 Asymmetrics but I couldn't get hold of them in rear sizes. My average mpg is around 25-26 so maybe I should take some smooth driving lessons from Curtis :D I don't exactly gun it everywhere as it is but its always tempting to get your foot down. Only time I see over 32mpg is on the Motorway on a steady run at the speed limit.

I think you can extend the warranty as you would on a normal Z4 but its not cheap. Never understood the reduced 2 year warranty especially for bits which were original BMW spec.
 
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