Alpina XB7 2021 UK first drive

Oh, and as with the regular X7, you can have your Alpina with six or seven seats. The third row isn’t some poxy affair best left for children, either: you genuinely can get two adults in there comfortably. Do so and you’ll be left with 326 litres of luggage space in the boot. It's 750 litres if you leave only the front two rows in place. 

The reworked 4.4-litre V8 is a seemingly endless well of torque and performance. Tip your foot into the throttle and the forcefulness with which it then accelerates is mind-bending. Its transmission wastes very little time selecting a gear and there’s minimal lag as those two turbochargers spool up. You just leave immediately.

Mind you, I would say the exact same thing about the X7 M50i. On regular British roads, I really don’t think you would notice the Alpina’s additional performance. You probably would on a derestricted stretch of autobahn, but here? Hmmm, not so much.

Like the X7 M50i, the XB7 can feel a touch too eager at step-off. You need to be a bit more delicate with your inputs when rolling away from a standstill, otherwise you can find yourself surging forward with a degree more urgency than you might have wagered for. It’s a small complaint about what's otherwise a seriously classy powertrain but a noticeable one.

Those 23in alloys irk in a similar fashion. Sure, they look pretty fantastic beneath the XB7’s enormous body, but they generate quite a lot of road noise at cruising speed and bring a detectable prickliness to the low-speed ride. Again, they're no dealbreaker (and there are smaller 21in rims available as standard, which are probably better in this regard), but I remember the X7 M50i being not only quieter but slightly more settled too.

In fact, most aspects of the standard X7’s ride are a bit tidier than that of the XB7’s. Alpina has tweaked the air suspension set-up, introducing new damper settings and revised kinematics that supposedly offer an enhanced balance between handling dynamism and ride comfort. There are five driving modes available: Comfort, Comfort Plus, Sport, Sport Plus and Adaptive.

For the vast majority of the time, Comfort is where it’s at. This seems to offer the most convincing balance between soft-edged pliancy and outright body control during regular driving - although that balance does feel as though it’s tipped slightly more in favour of the former. It feels a tiny bit spongier and looser than the X7 M50i does in its Comfort setting.

Sure, the XB7 may still be a lovely car to point down a motorway, but this, combined with the added road noise, means that ultimately it’s just not quite as satisfying. Comfort Plus mode - usually an Alpina’s joker card - is best left alone. Here it really starts to feel floaty, almost to nauseating effect.

That said, if you ramp things up into the sportier modes and show the XB7 a twisty road, it’s tricky not to be impressed. There’s still quite a lot of lateral movement through faster directional changes, but it’s well controlled.

The steering is light and accurate, just as it is in the regular X7, but it makes the XB7 feel a touch more delicate in its responses than a car this size otherwise might.

Grip feels incredibly abundant too - even on damp roads. Its size means it isn’t the easiest nor the most enjoyable car to pedal down some of Britain’s tighter, poorly sighted roads, but there’s abundant dynamic competency on display here.