At $11,995, Is This 2011 BMW 750iL Alpina B7 A Tuner Treasure?
When BMW chose not to build an official M7, Alpina filled the void with the B7.
Today's Nice Price or No Dice 750iL isn't your everyday F02, it's a rare performance edition massaged by the factory-approved tuning house, Alpina. Let's decide if it comes with an alpine-steep price.
To be chosen as the pace car for the Indy 500, a car needs to have some serious performance creds. Chevy's Corvette long ago established those creds, and has paced the race for 20 of its runnings, including this very year. Those Pace cars generally don't get sold to the public, but badged replicas do. A lot of folks think that factor denotes greater than average value, something we saw with yesterday's 1986 Chevy Corvette Indy Pace Car replica.
That soft top sportster looked to be in excellent condition, both mechanically and aesthetically. However, neither that fact nor the gold decals on the doors could sway a majority of you to agree with the seller's set price of $16,000. That was a non-starter for most, giving the 'Vette an 80 percent No Dice loss and an overall DNF for its sale.
Hey, what scares you most? For me, it's creepy clowns. For many car people, the most terrifying thing to consider is an out-of-warranty BMW from this century. While wonderful cars, one and all, they can turn into quite the adventure financially should something—hell, anything—go sideways.
That's all why it's important, should one decide to go the "Bimmer of a certain age" route, to make sure to get the most interesting, damn-the-torpedoes edition possible. Maybe something like this 2011 BMW 750iL Alpina B7.
Now, for those just waking up from a long coma—first off, welcome back! Next, let's explain just what the Alpina B7 exactly is. Alpina, or more appropriately Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH, is a Bavaria-based automaker whose go-faster models start out as BMWs, but then get morphed into what can be considered even more ultimate driving machines. The company is certified by the German government to be a full-fledged automaker, not just a tuning house.
In the case of this FO2 big boy, the work of turning it into a B7 included pulling the N63 twin-turbo V8 and imbuing it with bigger turbos feeding reinforced cylinder heads topping upgraded pistons. The mechanical bits were then matched with Alpina coding in the ECU. Altogether that means fully 500 horsepower at the beck and call of the driver's right foot, a 100-horse boost over the original Bimmer build. Torque increases as well, from 450 to 516 lb-ft, and it comes into play at over 1,000 rpm lower.
The Alpina mods don't stop at the flywheel either, the B7 has a stronger ZF six-speed automatic with its own Alpina coding, along with beefier half-shafts, suspension components, and brakes. Alpina badges and turbine wheels round out the mods. When new, this car commanded about $130,000 to drive off the dealer lot, and that was before adding any options.
This black on black Alpina isn't so new anymore, having done a modest 105,000 miles and, according to the CarFax, the seller handily provides, keeping out of too much mischief. That age and those miles do show on the exterior, however. The paint seems in need of a good polish and there's a sizable scrape on the rear bumper that needs to be addressed. So too do the headlamp covers that are starting to take on a haze as sickly yellow as an old man's beard.
The interior looks to be in much better shape, although saddled with a decade-old version of BMW's iDrive infotainment system. Still, it seems to offer all the bells and whistles one could want and looks pretty comfortable to boot. According to the ad, the title is clean and the car runs as it should with no warning lights on the dash, or weird noise emanating from under the hood.
As I noted, when new, this car tipped the scales at well over six figures. That's a lot of Flamin' Hot Cheetos even today. The selling price for this seemingly well-kept edition is $11,995, or about what you might expect to pay for a half-as-old Kia Forte. Which would you rather have? Yeah, me too.
What do you think about this Alpina and that price tag? Does that seem like a deal for a rare and desirable big Bimmer? Or, does the car's age and the work needed to bring the exterior up to snuff make that a stretch?
You decide!
Chicago, Illinois, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don R. for the hookup!
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