BMW Alpina B4 Gran Coupé

REFINEMENT IS EXQUISITE; THE CABIN R is a leather-lined capsule, beautifully cocooned from the outside world. The steering is measured in feel, meaty in weight. Green and blue stitching. Blue dials. It's definitely an Alpina. 

- JAMES TAYLOR

Maybe one of the last new Alpinas as we know them. When the Buchloe-based marque's longstanding cooperation agreement with BMW ends in 2025, it will become part of the BMW Group and the type of new cars it will produce from that point onwards is still TBC: perhaps ultra-high-end, BMW Alpina-badged derivatives positioned above the 7- and 8-series; perhaps something different.

Either way, this is an Alpina in the finest tradition: a high-performance combustionengined model that is pre-assembled on a BMW line then finished in-house at Alpina's Buchloe base. Alpina makes its own engineering alterations to the powertrain, drivetrain, suspension, brake system, body and beyond, and its leather shop gets to work on the interior.

Source material is the BMW 4-series Gran Coupé, the large-booted, five-door derivative of the 4-series, which also shares its body with the 14. BMW doesn't make an M4 Gran Coupé (the M440i is as spicy as the 4GC gets) so this car, powered by an Alpina-altered version of the M3/ M4's potent S58 engine, exists in its own niche.

It's also a new one for the B4 line, as the previous generation was a two-door coupe. The Gran Coupé costume resembles a saloon more than a coupe to my eyes, although it feels like a coupe to my scalp when sitting in the back; I'm 5ft 11in and the top of my head brushes the roof and my temple the cant rail if I sit back, but there's plenty of leg room. The controversial twin tombstone grille's chrome edges match the big chrome-edged Alpina Classic wheels but don't play quite as well with the hallmark Alpina script along the chin spoiler beneath, better suited to more traditional, square-jawed models.