Motortrend video slamming 2013 Alpina B7 vs Audi S8

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.

http://wot.motortrend.com/super-seda...ad-281025.html

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!!!!

What do you expect from a company that also owns Porsche, Lamborghini and Bugatti? They want less performance?

More things to come - just say they make a future Audi sedan based off a next-gen Panamera platform. Audi's not shy about platform sharing.

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.

I meant to say the exterior styling is blah, not performance numbers.

Originally Posted by Epiplatys

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.

Did you bother reading his post? He didn't say the performance was blah... Comparing an RS4 to 750, apples to oranges.

Oh sure my bad

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.

The S8 might get extra boost as ringer car just for the press. On the other hand, Alpina need to step up with better dyno to match factory spec.

I watched this a few times. A couple of observations from a 2013 F02 750Li xDrive owner:

not sure why they did not compare a SWB xDrive B7. Probably pulls another 5% off drag times

My car has no throttle response lag whatsoever in sport & sport+ mode

The S8 has launch control...might be something for B7 or M Sport Pkge in the future and certainly drastically affects acceleration times.

Given the advancements of N63B44Tu engine, I'm not sure how Alpina can squeeze that much more out of it

I wonder how the S8 and B7 brakes perform...mine began to get hot after one lap on the Nürburgring

The interior and the exterior of the S8 scream "Buick" to me. Especially the interior, it just looks cheap.

I may test drive one for kicks, it wouldbe interesting to spin one around Nordschleife.

I'd be interested to find out what alpbmw thinks?

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.

Interesting color on the B7. Didn't know there was a flat blue option.

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.

20k! LOL. 135k is enough for now! But it does look good.

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.

Both cars are extremely rare and exclusive.

Originally Posted by AdamG13

Interesting color on the B7. Didn't know there was a flat blue option.

The flat blue isn't listed in the US B7 ordering guide (unless they added it recently).