Back in 2011, ALPINA won the German GT Masters championship with its – back then – brand new ALPINA B6 GT3. In order to celebrate this win, the car manufacturer decided to launch a road-legal car that also wore the GT3 logo on its boot. This is basically how the ALPINA B3 GT3 came to life, mesmerizing people around the world with its performance.
As is usually the case with ALPINA products, the car wasn’t built to rival with the M3. Instead, the company used a 335i model to get as much power out of it as possible while also enhancing its reflexes on the track. That’s how the N54 engine under the hood was pushed to 408 HP and 540 Nm (400 lb-ft) of torque. Thanks to this newfound level of power, the B3 GT3 could accelerate to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 4.5 seconds from standstill.
However, this was also meant to be quite agile on the track, not just in a straight line and that’s why a carbon fiber wing was installed on the boot, a new exhaust system was added to the mix as well as an enhanced braking and suspension setup. As a matter of fact, on the ALPINA B3 GT3 not only can you alter the ride height and spring/damper settings, but you can even change the camber angles.
So, with all these changes done to what remains a 335i after all, can the B3 GT3 keep up with a Nissan GT-R on the drag strip? It’s a known fact that the GT-R is at home on the strip. The Japanese manufacturer made sure to turn the supercar into a monster, thanks to its intelligent all-wheel drive system as well as its incredible power output. With a sprint time to 100 km/h (62 mph) of just 2.8 seconds, few cars on the planet can stand up to it. So let’s see what the ALPINA managed, shall we?
