They have rarely been directly compared as companies, nor have their cars been pitted against each other very often.
Like Smart (Wikipedia) and Mini (Wikipedia), one similaity can be found in the relation of both Brabus (Wikipedia) and Alpina (Wikipedia) to Mercedes (Wikipedia) and BMW (Wikipedia) respectively. They are independant and in eternal coopetion with AMG (Wikipedia), Mercs housetuner, and BMW M GmbH (Wikipedia), the maker of the famous M-Series.

Brabus is maybe “just another tuner”, but it is the most famous one with a great brand recognition. And, on special projects, it is not AMG but Brabus being Mercs premium brand – think of Smart.

Alpina sells cars through the BMW network including warranty. The cars are manufactured under the name of Alpina, unlike all other BMW specialists, who “just” modify cars.

• Both are quite old compared to other car specialists, Alpina is 42 (1965) and Brabus just turned 30 (1977).
• Both are very distinctive and exclusive, more so then AMG or M-Series.
• Both emphasize torque, whereas M and AMG play the sporty high revving game.
• Both have a more subtle body style for their cars compared to the loud AMG and M-Series.
• Both have recognisable characteristics and styles: both have special wheel styles, both have their favourite colours, Alpina has got the elegant blue and green with light cream interior, whereas a typical Brabus is black.
• Both enhance and improve the basic car characters of BMW and Mercedes. Brabus is the classy brute, powerful and impressive, yet representative and relatively understated. Alpina has got finesse and elegance. Alpinas have got relaxing power delivery compared to the hyper-nervous Ms. Alpina is proud of sophisticated engineering, often shining with lower fuel consumption then lesser powered factory Bimmers.

Some prefer the AMGs and Ms of this world, I am more the Brabus and Alpina guy. I particularly like the Brabus C- and CL-Versions with big engines and the Alpina B3, B5 and B7. I usually have a penchant for estates and if a convertible is on the wish list, there will be no competition between the B3 and the future M3 Cabrio. Convertibles are about enjoying and savouring the ride, not chasing and racing.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Brabus, Alpina, BMW Alpina, B3, B7, B5, Cars

One of the greatest car films ever, “C’était un rendez-vous”. I saw it for the first time as a kid on a fun fair in a 180 degree round projection room. Lately it has been dugg up and posted on various blogs. Now I found the 5th gear video with a little more background info about the making ansd the attempt of Vicky Butler-Henderson to make a rerun…

dear Vicky, next time try early mornings like in the original. Ok, due to more traffic even in the wee hours it is impossible nowadays to beat that time, but you’d make it under 2 hours, promised.

Interesting info, the car was not a Porsche or a Ferrari, but Claude Lelouch’s Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9. The sound is dubbed. Lelouch himself confired that in this 2006 “making of c’était un rendez-vous“
So here are some wikipedia articles, in French and in English. Further infos can be found on IMDB and on this French site.

Unfortunately continental Europe never got the taste of the Vauxhall/Holden Monaro or Pontiac GTO, the Aussie version of n affordable musclecar, although there were plans for a launch (as Opel or Chevrolet Monaro). The small and German manufacturer Bitter used it as a base for his new car and unfortunately also had to scrap the idea of producing it.

If I lived in a any country were the Monaro is on offer, I probably couldn’t resist the temptation of owning one – at least for a while. It may not offer the raw sportscar character as the Corvette C6, but hey it’s much cheaper and more usable as a daily car. In the UK three models were imported and rebadged Vauxhall, the plain vanilla Monaro, the VXR and the VXR 500. The 500 is completely mad max and Britain being usually wet and traction therefore a topic, I don’t know if the 500 is such a good idea, but then madness rules.

The VXR has been critizised for not handling as well as the basic Monaro, because they not only upgraded the engine, which is perfectly fine. No, they also did some other changes, for example moving the fuel tank.

So either I’ll go mad and choose the 500 or I’ll take an innocently looking stock Monaro, preferrably black and show executive car club members what true understatement means.

Fifth Gear on the VXR500

First TopGear preview with Clarkson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTg3hVxhyYI

Top Gear on the beach with the Monaro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OcxVw6qxfs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcwm4NJXDjs

Top Gear on the VXR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G99DE4VMl4k

There are cars to love, but would you drive one of those daily? Without ABS? Like a Citroen DS, or a Jag XJ Series 3. Series 3? With those big bumpers? Are you kidding?

No. I always liked the Series 3, despite or because of the bumpers. They made the car look much more modern and solid, which it wasn’t of course.

Till Knowles Wilkins Engineering decided to give those cats a second chance. The results are incredible and show what good cars those Jags could have been. Perfect ? Well, while you are at it, dear KWE guys, why not upgrading the brake system with ABS. And why not making a Series 3 Coupé, an XJC12 MkIII KWE3, thank you. The XJC certainly was the belle of the lot, so here is a collection of XJC pics.
Enjoy the TopGear’s James May driving a KWE XJS. (BTW, that looks like James May as well next to a XJC, doesn’t it?)



The video above does not work anylonger, please see links in this post for videos of the James May review of the KWE Jaguar XJS!

What you can do with a Jag XJS, if you don’t want it on the streets any longer is demonstrated in this clip by BBC TopGear.

Foto cc 2006 by storem & video c by BBC TopGear

Update Dec 2009: this article can now be found on http://www.automental.com/2006/11/vantage-vintage.html.  Including a working video link, as the one here had been removed on youtube.

Also I would like to invite you to read a new post on automental.com which is about the automental dream of a Lynx Eventer Jaguar XJS conversion upgraded by KWE.  Have fun