BMW Just Went 186 MPH In The New Alpina 7 Series

Thanks to spy shots, we already knew BMW was hard at work cooking up the next Alpina B7 and that it'll have a V8 that sounds pretty great. The brand has now come out with official footage of the car doing high-speed testing at the Nardò test track, exceeding 186 mph. What, did you think the special label version of BMW's flagship sedan would be slow? For reference, the last-gen Alpina B7 already had a top speed of 205 mph, so 186 was frankly table stakes. That said, the speed itself arguably isn't what BMW is flexing her — it's the peace with which that speed is achieved.

"Speed has always been baked into the Alpina brand's DNA," said BMW Alpina vice president Oliver Viellechner. "However, we are not just interested in top speed alone. What matters is how natural, stable and confident it feels to drive at that speed." Internally, the brand apparently calls these cars "distance-shrinking" machines; autobahn weapons made to cover literal continents in great speed, style, and serenity.

You might recognize the name Nardò, by the way, from "Nardo Gray," that primer-like paint color popularized by Audi. The Nardò Ring, a 7.8-mile test track in southern Italy owned by Porsche and shaped like a perfect circle, is where that comes from.

Other confirmed details now include Alpina-signature 20-spoke lightweight wheels (peeping at the sidewall shows a diameter of 22 inches) wearing specially made tires that feature an extra layer of foam inside allowing for peak high-speed stability and comfort. Four oval exhaust tips emit a "rich, deep sound," and BMW says max torque out of that V8 is available "across virtually the entire rev range," while engine management software and throttle mapping is tweaked for smoothness over aggression. Gearbox tuning, too, has been revised to accommodate the bump in horsepower and engine speeds.

This new B7 (or whatever BMW will choose to call the next Alpina-ized 7 Series) will be the first production car made under the joint BMW Alpina brand. BMW announced that it had acquired Alpina back in 2022, but didn't take full control over the tuner until the beginning of this year. The new BMW Alpina 7 Series will be unveiled next year.