have you guys seen this? It figures that after three S8's I am now swithing to the B7 (arrives in 2 weeks). Still, performance aside, the new Audi looks boring compared to the Alpina.
On this week's episode of Head 2 Head, senior features editor Jonny Lieberman is pitting two luxury tuner limousines, the BMW 7 Series-based Alpina B7 and Audi S8, against one another to see which of the new performance-tuned German luxury flagships is best.
Lieberman starts out by comparing the B7 and the S8 on the track. While on paper 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8's 540 hp and 538 lb-ft of torque of the B7 far outclasses the 512 hp and 479 lb-ft the all-wheel drive S8's 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 produces, the Audi destroyed the Alpina in a straight line, needing 3.5 second to hit 60 mph from a standstill, as opposed to the B7's 4.3 second run.
I completely agree with your assessment that the B7 is the more attractive of the 2 cars (and would be my choice), but I can't get over by how much the S8 appears to devour the B7. Yikes!!!!
The S8 is very blah but my god the performance numbers are incredible. I suspect BMW will come out with a M version because every other luxury manufacture is pumping up the performance numbers on their flagship cars.
What was up with the B7's lack of power? Its dyno #'s were very low. Either there test care had issues or BMW/Alpina are fudging really bad on rated power numbers.
I'm not sure what is "blah" about the Audi's performance. The RS4 I traded in for the 750 will run circles around the 750 or B7 any day all day long. Just an immensely more fun car to drive. Reliability is a different conversation, otherwise I'd still be driving it.
thing I dont understand is if Motortrend was able to figure one afternoon about the S8 power.......how is it possible that Audi's development team had no idea, and if so why would they grossly understate the power?..how is that an intelligent marketing plan?....just raises some strange questions.
weight is about the same as a panamera turbo s.....stock should be less horsepower than a panny turbo s, yet this s8 is higher.....IF a normal s8 is achieving these numbers and its 60k cheaper of a car with the same drag numbers......then yeah impressive value.
Alpina pretty much does what BMW advertised it would do.
On the other hand Audi 3.5 to 60, 11.8 118mph on 1/4 mi, thats in the same league as a 911 Turbo, or a GTR. Only full size sedan I know that can pull that is a S65.
I like to see an S8 off the showroom floor post those numbers.
I was interested in the S8 but really wanted LWB so it was pretty much out from the start (I never drove one, maybe I should have?). I don't mind Audi's exterior styling, but do find the interior of the BMW superior.
I was really surprised to see the dyno numbers. Either the S8 was a tuned up press car or the Alpina had issues - or both. I can't wait for some more B7 tests/reviews to come out. I also can't wait for my darn car to arrive stateside...
I've seen another test on Youtube of the S8 and the guy testing it was only able to get a time of 4.5secs so I think 3.5 for the average driver is near impossible, you're probably looking at the low to mid 4's.
the 2013 B7 (SWB xDrive) is actually only $20k more than the S8 ($135k vs $115k). I priced them both out since I had to decide which one to order (I went with the B7 after three S8's in a row). However, the cost of a lease is exactlty the same because the residual of the B7 (60%) is far higher than the S8 (45%). Those are for 12k miles. My B7 is on the ship and headed to NJ as we speak. I am dissapointed in the Motortrend review but the Alpina is so much hotter looking.
yes, that matte finish is awesome. I wish I knew that was an option when I ordered mine (I got the Alpina Blue with black/ivory interior). The matte look is very hot right now. I was in Beverly Hills a few weeks ago and I saw several Porsches and Bentleys with a charcoal matte finish and the grilles and wheels in black.
You can request to get a matte paint job on any BMW model, I think the cost is around $20k+ or you can always go down the vinyl route which would cost around a few thousand dollars.
I've been seeing lots of matte silver C-class coupes around here lately. Just saw one that was chrome! I don't know if it was paint or some kind of metallic wrap.
I don't see anything like that here in New England. But just having the B7 and especially in the alpina blue will be something special. I have only seen one or two B7s here in 20 years. I just hope it is not going to look too dorky on 18" winter wheels during the winter months.
This gets tossed around from time to time but just for the record, it's incorrect. The matte finishes do have a clear coat protecting the color base coat. It just happens to be a matte- rather than gloss-finish clear.
Any frozen (matt) color is consider as "Individual" from BMW and cost should be around $5K, SA need to check with factory direct when placing order due to limited schedule run. Production efficiency of any "Individual" configuration is much lower (like 7 to 1) than standard, therefore, the premium is mainly to compensate production rate cost rather material cost.
Wow, $5k isn't bad actually...up here someone was quoted $20k for a f10. I've been told tho that matte paint jobs are a b!tch to maintain; I read that any bird dropping which isn't remove within minutes will basically damage the paint so makes you wonder if it's even worth the hassle.
Do a wrap on whatever paint you have and it's protected, and you don't have to worry about permanent damage. I think that's the only way to go. Also, if you get tired of it, it can be removed to reveal your natural color.
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