Dear All - I hope you enjoy this article.....??
I bought Lucie the B8 Touring (014) in June 2008. I was lucky to spot her on Pistonheads and fate seemed to be in play when I discovered that this very rare car was only 2 miles from my home in Sussex! Not so lucky was the water consumption issue, which was finally solved by replacing all the engine hoses, then the radiator and in the end skimming the heads and fitting new M5 head gaskets (nearly £4,000!). Since then the experience of owning a B8 has been great fun, particularly this summer, when I have showed the car at two BMW Car Club shows and done several European driving holidays. The shot below shows Lucie alongside my Porshe 944 Turbo Cabriolet (sadly now sold).
First up was my annual trip to Le Mans 24 hour race in mid-June. This was the first time I had used a LHD car in 10 years of doing this journey. We completed 1200 miles at an average of 22mpg which considering we were carrying all our camping gear and doing some spirited driving seemed a good result and compared favourably with other cars I have had. The edge was taken off the journey by my co-driver who was unused to driving ‘foreign’ cars and so misjudged where he was on the road. As a result, he managed to hit a kerb in a French village at speed, damaging the front and rear nearside wheels!
We limped home at a reduced speed and his wallet became some £800 lighter once I had bought / refurbished the two wheels and tyres in the UK. But the unexpected bonus came because our campsite (Maison Blanche) was next to the track and after the race we were able to drive on and park by the Starting Grid! It was great to photgraph Lucie alongside some of my mates other cars, including a beautiful Lotus Elan Sprint DHC, Morris Minor Pickup, restored TR4 and Honda NSX.
Following Le Mans, I decided to have Lucie’ Inspection I service conducted at my local BMW dealer, Vines of Gatwick, a first-rate BMW dealer who also look after our E46 M3. The service was carried out by their Master Technician (top man) as no-one else had seen a B8 before! Many admiring comments were made and she passed with a clean bill of health, apart from some minor oil leaks (more of this later).
The end of June /early July saw my wife and me taking a 5 day trip into northern France with Lucie. We completed around 600 miles without any problems and achieved a more respectable 27mpg. The ferry journey was just great and on board we enjoyed a cracking breakfast in Langan's Restaurant (well recomended)
During the trip we stopped at some of the WWI memorials including the famous Thiepval Memorial site on July 1
st (see below), the anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Next up came the two visits to the BMW car club shows in August. Firstly at the Duxford Aerodrome on August 2
nd, where I was joined by fellow B8 Touring owner, Chris Tranter, en-route from Luxembourg to visiting his family near Birmingham.
It was great to share stories with another owner, who has also gone through an expensive ‘entry fee’ to becoming a B8 owner! Chris was able to help me realise that the bonnet of my car is not an original because the underfelt was still attached to it. Five minutes later and Chris had removed the felt and handed it to me! No wonder the head gaskets had failed, with all that heat being kept under it!!
I saw Chris again 2 weeks later at the national BMW Festival at Gaydon the UK National Heritage Museum on August 16
th. We were parked next to each other in the Alpina section, which was very well represented amongst the other ‘more common’ BMWs! After a successful and enjoyable day we headed home. Chris has since noticed that our B8’s were featured in the review of the BMW Festival at Gaydon ‘Total BMW’s October issue. The comment read ‘its rare to see the V8 powered Alpina E36 at all in the UK but we found these two B8 4.6’s parked up next to each other’. It made owning such a car a real privilege.
Then in early September, my wife, daughter and I drove down to Servoz, near Chamonix in the French Alps. A fabulous journey there of some 550 miles in one day, followed by a week of touring some of the most spectacular scenery France has to offer. Highly recommended, particularly in the off-season when the snow is not there.
On the return leg we avoided the Autoroute and drove through Geneva, over the Jura Mountain range and on to Reims where we stayed overnight. Back home in the UK we had covered over 1,400 miles without any problems and at 28mpg.
My daughter now says she prefers being a passenger in the Alpina to the M3! Praise indeed.
So what next? Well there is a minor oil leak, which appears to be the power steering hoses so these will be replaced in December and then the bonnet should get a re-spray as it has some strange splits in the paintwork. I may also go for this oil cooler modification cleverly developed by some of the forum guys, when funds allow.
Other than that Lucie just keeps on rolling and in that beautifully understated way that Alpinas are famous for. I must admit to having become smitten by the Alpina philosophy and someday I may even buy a D3 Touring if my job means doing a lot more driving than at present. Who knows? Good luck to all you other B8ers out there.
Regards Berni Cashin
'Lucie' the B8 Touring - Summer 2009 Adventures
also just added to the fleet is a 2002 porsche 996tt in silver full options and auto with the old tip-tronic
just arrived vw touareg v10 tdi diamond black, fully loaded tiptronic with 22" rims. just arrived gunmetal grey toyota celica gt4 2.0 turbo 4wd 360 bhp with t4 turbo, running out of space for cars, RS4 CABRIOLET IN PHANTOM BLACK JUST LANDED 
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