Head 2 Head

Brother From Another Mother: We Compare Bmw’s Two in-house 600-hp Gran Coupes.

- Jason Cammisa

Every car is defined by a series of trade-offs and decisions that achieve one goal at the expense of others.

The BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe itself defines compromise—emphasizing style over function. We just can’t decide which of its two performance derivatives we like better. The M6 and Alpina B6 are both available from BMW dealerships with full factory warranties and wear the same sexy body. They have different engines, but both are twin-turbo V-8s that crank out 600 tarmac-tearing horsepower. Even their base prices are similar, a mere $3,400 apart. That’s a rounding error at their six-figure price points.

Despite the apparent similarities, these two BMWs are the products of different compromises. Everyone knows what an M car is. You expect the M6 Gran Coupe to pummel any racetrack, dominate any back road, and obliterate everything on the autobahn. But what’s an Alpina B6? For starters, it isn’t a tuner car. At least no more so than the M6.

Alpina is no fly-by-night organization, having celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015—a milestone M won’t hit until 2022. We’ll forgive you if you’ve never heard of Alpina. After all, the company prides itself on exclusivity, and that means not selling tens of thousands of cars every year. But you need to pay attention going forward because (spoiler alert) the Alpina B6 is a better car than the M6. But it took head-to-head testing to figure this out.