Business at 300kph

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CLUB CLASS: Alpina signature touches spread across the cabin with acres of wood and soft leather. the 21-inch multispoke alloy wheels fill the large arches.

It may be the biggest Alpina on the block, but the B7 is still a serious road-pounding monster.

An arrow-straight two-lane stretch of German Autobahn lies before me, and even though it's just after 10am on a Monday morning, it's delightfully light of traffic.

The conditions aren't exactly ideal, a cold wind is whipping some squally showers around and the temperature is dropping close to freezing. However, behind the wheel of the B7 I'm not concerned.

Like any 7-series, the B7 cocoons its occupants from the vagaries of the outside elements extremely well - at a steady 130kph cruise, you can't even hear the supercharged V8 spinning. But, floor the throttle and the B7 starts to show some serious teeth as the speedometer begins a fast ascent towards its 300kph extremity.

The engine becomes more vocal, although never strained, and the first 260kph comes up reasonably quickly - it's the final few kms that are a real struggle as the aerodynamic qualities of the brick-like B7 fight against the wall of air smacking into the near-vertical windscreen.

In the distance, a smoky Peugeot hatchback is stuck to the rear bumper of a slow-moving truck. I'm approaching at a rate of 80 metres every second and the gap is closing fast.

With the B7's Xenon lights cutting through the drizzle, there's no reason to suspect that the driver of the Peugeot hasn't seen me, but with a couple of hundred metres to go,
he pulls out without indicating and I catch a glimpse of the speedo before mashing the brakes hard to cancel out the speed deficit between us.

It read 285kph - just 15kph shy of the top speed. What's most astounding about the B7 is that shedding 175kph in a matter of seconds didn't ruffle its feathers in the slightest, it just hauled itself in without drama, my passenger didn't even flinch.

Monstrously fast motorway jaunts are what the B7 lives for, kilometre after kilometre can be eaten up with the only encroachment into the plush cabin being a little wind noise around the windscreen pillars. The 88-litre petrol tank gives a theorectical range of around 700kms.

Regular 7-series will struggle against the urge of the B7's supercharged V8 which endows the big Alpina with a 0-100kph time of just 4.9secs. The Switch-Tronic buttons on the underside of the steering wheel add an element of fun, but the B7 is equally happy charging along in Drive.

For the executive in a hurry, nothing, not even the Mercedes S65 AMG, comes close.

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