[Alpina_B3_Lux]

Car of the month January 2012!

PHOTOSHOOT: BMW 335i E90 LCI - Alpina 19" wheels + Track Day Nürburgring Nordschleife

1. Alpina Classic wheels 19" - design 2010

In general I have to say that I'm rather a fan of understatement when it comes to cars. Although I can admire outrageously designed supercars like Ferrari and Lamborghini, for myself I much prefer driving a car that looks quite normal, but is capable of much, much more than you could realise from looking at it.

That being said, of course it shouldn't look too shabby either. Which is why when I ordered my 335i E90 LCI (in spite of being tempted by a Maserati at that time), I specced it up with some bits of the BMW Individual program (such as the colour azurite black or the interior Merino Champagne leather) and wheels from Alpina - of course in 19 inches, everything else doesn't look so good on the current 3 series sedan.

Now, when at the end of last year Alpina announced that they had renovated their "Classic" wheels a bit, making them more turbine-style like, I knew that I would eventually want to see these new wheels on my car. In particular when I saw them live on the new Alpina B5 Biturbo and thought they were extremely good-looking, a bit more on the sportive side than before.
At the beginning of this year - in February, to be precise - I therefor ordered a set from my local Alpina dealer. They had only just been made available for non-Alpina cars; as you may or may not know, Alpina does not sell all the bits they have on their cars to non-Alpina cars but only very selective bits such as the wheels or the spoilers, or more recently an additional oil cooler for the 335i. The Alpina rims have always been very expensive - but then they are worth it, in my opinion. Made by BBS, with their unique 20-spoke-lightweight design, a lock behind the central wheel hub to make things for car thiefs more difficult, and which also hides the valve. I'm really pleased how these new wheels look, they're sportive and elegant at the same time, and also weight-optimised. For 19", they do not look too oversized - actually my winter wheels (BMW Performance 269) look slightly bigger on the car.

At the same time, I also got new tires and took the opportunity to mount the new Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires that had just come out (as a successor to the Pilot Sport 2). But this here isn't about the tires (I posted on this in the relevant forum), so let's see some photos!

Here they are:

1. Close-up of the Alpina wheels:


2. Frontal view (1):


3. Frontal view (2):


4. Side view:


5. Side rear view:


6. Rear view:



2. Track Day at the Nürburgring - July 2011

Those of you who have followed my threads about the various modifications I have been doing to my car (see all of them here: 335i E90 LCI - Experiences and review of various modifications (long!)) know that since I bought my car roughly 2 1/2 years ago it has become much more powerful, faster and more agile.

However, one component that was not able to keep up with this was…the driver! So this season - besides doing some minor modifications to my car - I wanted to "tune the driver". I have been driving for some time on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring, the famous "green hell" as it was dubbed by Niki Lauda, and already had more than 100 laps under my belt. Lucky me, living so close to it! Helped until now by a few experienced friends and in particular expert driver and forum moderator (UK) E92Fan who has taught me a lot about this track, its delights and its difficulties, I wanted to further improve my driving skills.

Therefor I participated at a track day on the Nordschleife in July 2011. Now, without going into too many details about this - after all, this is a sub-forum for photos mostly -, a track day basically means that the relevant track is not open to the general public (as the Nordschleife is on certain days in the year), but rented by an organiser on that specific day, and only those who booked this track day with this organiser can drive there. Mostly your car will have to be street-legal, and you usually can't run with slicks (but semis are allowed) and have to wear a helmet while driving. For the Nordschleife, just driving there for the whole day (as much as you want to) costs around 550 EUR. There are usually around 100-130 cars that have booked for such a track day on the Nordschleife, and this time there were quite a few stunning ones such as Lamborghinis and Ferraris (and many, many Porsches of course).

However, I went one step further and also booked an instructor together with a few friends of mine, so that someone could slap me on my wrist when I was doing stuff wrong, and could generally correct me and improve my lines over the day. I booked all of it through Oliver Grams' website (Sportscar Driver Training - Oliver Grams) as I had heard good things about him, and an instructor with several thousand laps taught me quite a few things over the day.

The Nordschleife is quite long - almost 21 kilometers, and has lots of ups and downs with an overall difference of several hundred meters that your car has to drive through. Depending on your speed, it takes between 8-10 minutes for one lap, and one usually says that you need a minimum of around 100 laps to start knowing the track. Here's a map of it so that you can see what it looks like:



It was loads of fun driving that day. The weather gods were favourable (for once! my next track day in September was almost completely in the wet), and I did around 15-17 laps over the whole day. Which does not sound much, but I can tell you that driving more than 300 km all-out on a racetrack with lots of other cars is really exhausting! What I always find fascinating is that due to its immense length, the Nordschleife is never boring or repetitive, and there are always more things to learn as the track changes with the weather conditions, but also very much with the speed you drive on it. The Fuchsröhre for example can seem relatively harmless when you drive through it at 120 km/h - it's a totally different matter when you hammer through it at 190 km/h.

Enough said - here are the photos. All were taken by the excellent professional motorsports photographer Jochen van Cauwenberge alias Frozenspeed (here's his website: Frozenspeed Motorsport Photography). I hope you'll enjoy them - and let me know if you're in the vicinity!

Alpina_B3_Lux

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1. Approaching a corner (1):


2. Approaching a corner (2):


3. Front view - approaching a corner (1):


4. Front view - approaching a corner (2):


5. Side view - going fast!:


6. Side view - going fast! (2):


7. Rear view - you can see how hilly the Nordschleife is:


8. Driving through the famous Caracciola-Karussell (1):


9. Driving through the famous Caracciola-Karussell (2):


10. Being chased by a race-prepped E46 M3 CSL (1):


11. Being chased by a race-prepped E46 M3 CSL (2):


12. Being chased by a race-prepped E46 M3 CSL (3):


13. Another drive through the Karussell:


14. Another drive through the Karussell (2):


15. Another drive through the Karussell (3):


16. Another drive through the Karussell (4):

[AW335OME]

Goddamn those wheels look good!

[just4kickz]

looks good

[Vmotion]

I always appreciate your commentary and detailed descriptions. I wish all of us on this forum where more like you (including myself). You make me want to get a plane ticket and get on that track tomorrow.

I drive that track at least once a week on GT5 to hopefully be prepared for the real thing one day. I know I've done 300 laps on that track and I still know that I will have no idea what I'm doing when the day comes for me do it for real.

Again thanks for sharing.

[e92door3]

ive got so much love for your wheels, awesome lci

[Wonka]

That's a fantastic looking E90. Participation in action shots such as these is on the bucket list of so many.

[FrankiE90]

congrats on the wheels -
lot of respect for the alpina badge.


Nürburgring - I'm a track noob but,
dreaming til the day I fly over
and run the ring. 100 laps, huh. That maybe a
long stay.
the Karussell looks awesome, drop in for high speed fun.
your picts, ftw!

[Auto]

Best looking wheels for E9X!! WOW! Amazing! So much history and class!

[Schm]

Great pics and write-up as always, I really love the new alpina style compared to the old one!

[creaminz]

My favorite shot has to be the one with race'd out E46 M3 in the background.

Thanks for sharing awesome photos! This is something we dont see often!

[Alpina_B3_Lux]

Originally Posted by AW335OME

Goddamn those wheels look good!

Originally Posted by just4kickz

looks good

Originally Posted by e92door3

ive got so much love for your wheels, awesome lci

Thank you! Very much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Wonka

That's a fantastic looking E90. Participation in action shots such as these is on the bucket list of so many.

I'm quite lucky in that the Nürburgring is so close to where I live. And other forum members have introduced me to Frozenspeed who makes these amazing shots. I've got quite a few more from the past two years, maybe I'll also post them here one day.

Originally Posted by Vmotion

I always appreciate your commentary and detailed descriptions. I wish all of us on this forum where more like you (including myself). You make me want to get a plane ticket and get on that track tomorrow.

I drive that track at least once a week on GT5 to hopefully be prepared for the real thing one day. I know I've done 300 laps on that track and I still know that I will have no idea what I'm doing when the day comes for me do it for real.

Again thanks for sharing.

Thanks a lot for your kind words, very appreciated. It takes a lot of time and effort to write these things correctly and make the photos, so it's very motivating to hear that people appreciate it.

As for the 'Ring, I do think that you can learn it a bit faster if you know a bit about the basic layout. But driving it is indeed another thing entirely - also much more fun. Let me know should you consider getting that plane ticket!

Originally Posted by FrankiE90

congrats on the wheels -
lot of respect for the alpina badge.


Nürburgring - I'm a track noob but,
dreaming til the day I fly over
and run the ring. 100 laps, huh. That maybe a
long stay.
the Karussell looks awesome, drop in for high speed fun.
your picts, ftw!

The 100 laps estimate does not mean you won't have fun before that - far from it! I'm sure you'll enjoy it loads from the first lap on. It's just that you'll only start to drive it fast after quite a while, as there are so many things to memorize about it.

Originally Posted by Auto

Best looking wheels for E9X!! WOW! Amazing! So much history and class!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Schm

Great pics and write-up as always, I really love the new alpina style compared to the old one!

Thank you! Much appreciated. More reviews to come, problem is always finding time...

Originally Posted by creaminz

My favorite shot has to be the one with race'd out E46 M3 in the background.

Thanks for sharing awesome photos! This is something we dont see often!

Thanks! The shot with the E46 M3 is really cool. That car was much faster than myself, I let it pass me shortly after the photo was made. On the 'Ring it's in the first place about the driver and the track experience, and only long after that about the car.

I did another two track days in September, but don't know if any photos were done at that time. If so, I'll post them here as well. Next 'Ring trip scheduled for the 9th of October, if the weather is favorable!

Alpina_B3_Lux

[ibeclueless]

car looks good, looks fun on the track

[remmib]

Those wheels looks fantastic in the car, makes it look gorgeous.

[mastermayhm]

classy classy wheels

[zmiller]

Sick wheels!!

[nekky]

Sehr schoene Fotos... Ich wuensche mich, dass ich die Gelegenheit diesen Kurs zu fahren gehabt hatte. Lucky that you live so close! Viel Glueck!

[Francis M.]

Those wheels go so well with the car. Timeless look

Great action shots!

[dnovikov]

awesome wheels

[E90Mario]

Most beautiful wheels for any BMW in my opinion!

[xquisit]

the wheels...your e90 LCI...your mods.... your write-up...

all fantastic, thank you for sharing

recently, i have fallen for e90s again...i was set on an e92, but i miss my old jet black e90

im sure azurite black is a metallic paint, but what differences does it have compared to other metallic blacks BMW has to offer standard or for the individual options?

EDIT> BTW!!! COTM!!!

[jose_sonictuning]

Great wheels.

I saw the same wheels on alpina e90...pretty amazing =D

[Alpina_B3_Lux]

Originally Posted by ibeclueless

car looks good, looks fun on the track

Thanks! And it is, indeed. Will be even more next season with different brakes and different suspension, but so far I'm really happy with it.

Originally Posted by remmib

Those wheels looks fantastic in the car, makes it look gorgeous.

Originally Posted by mastermayhm

classy classy wheels

Originally Posted by zmiller

Sick wheels!!

Thanks for the feedback, very much appreciated!

Originally Posted by nekky

Sehr schoene Fotos... Ich wuensche mich, dass ich die Gelegenheit diesen Kurs zu fahren gehabt hatte. Lucky that you live so close! Viel Glueck!

If you ever decide to come over, let me know and we can do a lap or two!

Originally Posted by Francis M.

Those wheels go so well with the car. Timeless look

Great action shots!

Thank you - I'll let Jochen know how much people appreciate his photos - he'll be pleased!

Originally Posted by dnovikov

awesome wheels

Originally Posted by MARIO K

Most beautiful wheels for any BMW in my opinion!

Thanks a lot!

Originally Posted by xquisit

the wheels...your e90 LCI...your mods.... your write-up...

all fantastic, thank you for sharing

recently, i have fallen for e90s again...i was set on an e92, but i miss my old jet black e90

im sure azurite black is a metallic paint, but what differences does it have compared to other metallic blacks BMW has to offer standard or for the individual options?

EDIT> BTW!!! COTM!!!

Azurite black is one of the colour options from the BMW Individual programme, and is a metallic black paint with a dark blue sheen in it that is visible in particular under direct sunlight. I really like that colour, in particular in combination with the Merino Champagne leather interior.

Originally Posted by jose_sonictuning

Great wheels.

I saw the same wheels on alpina e90...pretty amazing =D

Yeah, that's what gave me the idea...

Alpina_B3_Lux