A NEW race-tuned BMW 3 Series Coupe is claiming the best of both worlds by combining supercar performance and the economy of a city car.

Aug 6 2008 Steve Hughes

A NEW race-tuned BMW 3 Series Coupe is claiming the best of both worlds by combining supercar performance and the economy of a city car.

What appears to be mission impossible has been accomplished by sports car specialist Alpina in the guise of the new BMW Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo.

As the name suggests this is a BMW 3 Series Coupe with a twin-turbo diesel engine that the specialists at Alpina have tuned to be capable of 150mph performance and 50mpg economy.

There are low CO2 emissions too, which Alpina says will appeal to company car user-choosers because of the benefit-in-kind tax advantages.

Alpina engineers have taken BMW’s twin-turbo diesel engine from the 123d and increased power by some five per cent to 214bhp.

This results in more power-per-litre than any other BMW or Alpina model and then there is the power-to-weight ratio, which at 146bhp per tonne is a match for the heavier 370bhp BMW 330d Coupe.

It enables the newcomer to sprint from rest to 60mph in just 6.9 seconds with CO2 emissions as low as 143g/km. The acceleration of the automatic models is a match for that of the manual models although the CO2 figure rises slightly to 148g/km.

Although just 100 of these cars will be produced this year, at a cost of £32,950 each, BMW says that they prove that by using the latest technology and manufacturing processes it is possible to combine prodigious performance and impressive economy.