So the weather is cold and salt is on the road. This means that I can’t use the Aston much. Even if I could drive it without freezing my thrup’ney’s off, I still shouldn’t. The Aston is made of aluminum and aluminum cars don’t like salt.

With that in mind I thought I would share a photo and some thoughts about my other car. My Alpina B3 biturbo.

The B3 is a problem. It’s a problem because it’s sooooo good to drive. It goes like stink, is comfortable, has a nice stereo, has a big boot, handles every bit as well (if not better)

as the Aston and it does 27.1 MPG. I get 19 MPG out of the Aston (if I’m wearing very thin socks and race booties). I don’t know what it does with the fuel but it’s certainly not being used for motion. Perhaps the extra 9 MPG is being used to make the nice noise? It’s so good in fact, that I forget to use the Aston and prefer to take the Alpina for any kind of long trip, which makes the Aston jealous.

The other problem is that it sounds a bit like a diseasle. The exhaust note is on the dull side of dull. It’s deeply forgettable.

There is one huge huge plus though and that is it’s not an M3. Newish M3’s in Essex are owned by the sort of people who I don’t want to be associated with. Older M3s are owned by yobs. The original M3s are pretty cool but now cost a fortune and are owned by very rich people who should own a 911 of the same era instead.

Oh and bye the way, the Alpina now has a name. It’s supposed to be called ‘Bagheera’ but this then became ‘Panther’ which then became ‘Panda’  - Panda has stuck.