[Blackcross]

[QUOTE=advantage20;22308612]Pretty weird that so few reviews actually adress what's really special about this Alpina compared to the regular 7 Series in the driving experience department, in fact what is special about pretty much any Alpina in this regard, i.e. outstanding performance and handling yet seemingly a superior comfort to regular BMWs, despite the larger wheels. If such chassis prowess is made possible merely through better finetuning (not reworked elements like is the case with the engine), how come BMW engineers aren't coming up with this improved tuning to begin with?

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They could if they wanted to. Suspension tuning has a ton of variables and as a result, a huge number of ways to achieve the same result. Buuut I've always felt that BMW's approach to the end result (the ride) was always a bit harsher on the shock absorber's bump setting: control the initial input (hit that crack in the road) versus allow more initial input (softer) and control the variation more firmly after.

Hartge does the same thing as Alpina: soften the bump setting and raise the rebound setting. And as a result, can produce the same overall suspension control but with less harshness. There are a lot of other things they can and do change, but the rebound setting has the largest immediate reduction on impact with a surface variation, while the stiffer rebound still brings it back under control. That is if I remember correctly. Unfortunately it has been some time since I fiddled with shock and spring rates in setups, so I do not remember exact values.