Photographers and the Alpina don’t mix. A couple of months back Gus Gregory was cursing its incompatibility with French LPG nozzles, now our staff snapper, Chris Rutter, suffered a puncture on his way back from this month’s Grand Challenge escapade at the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground.

We’ll be getting a new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric fitted in the next couple of days, and that – touch wood – is the only expense the old girl has suffered since its post-purchase service back in August, 7000 miles ago.

While we were at Bruntingthorpe it would have been remiss of us to not attach the timing gear to the Alpina. A single run with a gentle start saw 149mph before the anchors were required. It felt completely stable and still accelerating, so I guess I’m gonna have to find a longer runway…