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2015 BMW Alpina B6 xDrive Gran Coupe

Alpina has been lovingly modifying BMWs for half a century, but as we learned during a tour of the company's HQ in Buchloe, Germany, Alpina has been in the wine distribution business for nearly as long. The company has an estimated million bottles on reserve in two warehouses and a beautiful wine cellar/tasting room on property in western Bavaria, just yards from where its 1,500 hand-crafted automobiles per year are produced.
What does that have to do with the new B6 Gran Coupe? Well, it may help make sense of the overall character of Alpina's automobiles, especially vis-à-vis the similarly priced, similarly powerful M Cars that BMW sells in far greater numbers. Alpinas are built by wine connoisseurs for wine connoisseurs, or wine connoisseur types; they are not rip-snortin' racecars for the road - that's M's domain. Alpinas are esoteric, rich in character and nuanced. But make no mistake: they are very, very fast.
Our brief first drive of the B6 Gran Coupe - the only 6 Series-based Alpina we'll get in the US for 2015 - took place on German autobahns and Austrian alpine roads, where the car is more at home than anywhere in the world, both literally and figuratively. With 540 horsepower and 540 pound-feet of torque on tap from its twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 and xDrive all-wheel drive, the B6 is said to be able to hit 60 miles per hour in 3.7 seconds on its way to a top speed of 198 mph, a massive 43 mph faster than the M6, which is electronically limited to 155 mph. Yet even at insane speeds - we saw an indicated 190 mph on one particularly lonely stretch of Autobahn - the B6 feels more luxurious than sporty, taking the countenance of a low-slung Bentley Continental GT or an Aston Martin Rapide S, not a knife-edged supercar. It doesn't feel scintillating like a Porsche 911 GT2; rather it feels rock steady, like the 4,780-pound luxury sedan it is.

Alpina B3 Bi-Turbo burns all the midnight oil

We've got good news and bad news for you, boys and girls, from the floor of the Frankfurt Motor Show. The good news is that the BMW M3 has come early, with a diesel, in wagon form - albeit with a different name. The bad news is that it will in all likelihood never make it to America. Which is a shame, because it's awesome.
What we're talking about, of course, is the new Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo. BMW's wickedly talented but lesser know stepchild has created a 3 Series with a 3.0-liter twin-turbo diesel six packing 345 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. You - and by "you," we mean overseas buyers - can choose between sedan or wagon, as well as rear- or all-wheel drive. But the bottom line is a 4.6-second 0-62 time and a 173-mph top speed... from a diesel.
We scoped out the rear-drive wagon Alpina brought to the show, decked out in its signature blue. And you can, too, in the gallery of live shots above, along with the freshly assembled stock photos of both sedan and wagon versions in the gallery below.

BMW to announce location of new plant in Mexico in July

Volkswagen manufactures in Mexico. Soon Audi will as well, and Mercedes-Benz is said to be working on a deal to assemble some of its cars at a Nissan plant in Mexico too. That leaves BMW out of the mix of German automakers building cars South of the Border, but that may soon be rectified, as well.
According to Automotive News, the Bavarian automaker is preparing to announce the site of its first Mexican assembly plant as soon as July, now just two months away. BMW already builds cars for North American consumption at its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, but has reportedly been keen to capitalize on cheaper labor and the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement to supply vehicles to the United States and Canada especially.
When BMW does announce the site of the plant - reportedly narrowed down to either Hidalgo or San Luis Potosi - it is tipped to work its way up to 100,000 vehicles per year at the new location, potentially to include the 3 Series as well as smaller, front-drive models, including Minis.