Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo

Specialist BMW tuning house Alpina has launched its D3 Bi-Turbo, a six-cylinder diesel 3 Series based hot-rod it claims is the quickest production diesel car ever.

The company’s launch release quotes an official 0-100km/h figure of 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 278km/h, putting it in the league of the donor marque’s V8 petrol M3.

The modified car benefits from a massive hike in power and torque, care of Alpina magic worked on what’s already a potent engine in the 330d donor vehicle.

A new ECU, the replacement of the stock single turbocharger with two smaller, quicker-acting blowers, a larger intercooler and a big, quad exhaust systems conspire to push power up from 187 to a whopping 257kW.

Peak torque jumps from 560 to 700Nm, the latter from just 1500 to 3000rpm, ensuring all occupants will be squeezed into the luxury leather pews when dropping the hammer.

All that extra twist meant the company had to get transmission supplier ZF to beef up the donor car’s standard eight-speed auto gearbox too.

Nevertheless, Alpina has worked to retain the EfficientDynamics technologies endemic to BMW engines, meaning the D3 has auto stop/start and the EcoPro mode, which attenuates go-pedal and transmission behaviour for better fuel economy when all that blistering power isn’t needed.

The result is a remarkable official fuel consumption figure of just 5.3L/100km combined (NEDC) and 139g/km CO2 – a small premium over the stock 330d’s 4.9L/100km and 129g/km. You could say it's mean and green.

The price premium is modest, too. The Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo sedan starts at €46,975 ($67,174), against a starting €45K for the standard 330d, and €48,487 ($69,336) for the Touring wagon, against a starting price of €46,750 for the 330d Touring.

Just don’t expect them in Australia any time soon.