The Car Spy

Alpina have been working their magic on BMW’s for 45 years now and Herr Burkard Bovensiepen, the founder, is still the main man at their Buchloe HQ in Germany.

Car buffs will know that Alpina buys the basic bodywork and ancilliaries from BMW and then go about producing their own interpretation which is then recognised and registered by the German authorities as an ‘Alpina’ – not a BMW. RUF do the same thing with Porsches as did AMG before becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mercedes.

So what do you get from Alpina that sets their cars apart from the standard fare from BMW? Well for starters much of the interior features bespoke Alpina items and many of the materials used tend to be of an even higher quality than those from the original factory.

Oh and don’t forget Alpina’s alloy wheels which any car anorak will spot a mile away. Their distinctive design has been around since the beginning of time and still look fresh on their cars today.

More importantly however is what they put under the bonnet. Engines will either be seriously re-worked versions of the orginal Beemer units or indeed something they have designed from scratch themselves. Their B5 which is an Alpina’d M5 (E60 model) sports a V8 rather than the Munich V10. Alpina have biased their car towards a beefier torque curve although power-wise there is little to choose between them.

As so on to the B3 which looks pretty much like an M3 until you see that Alpina have opted to install their Bi-turbo 3 litre straight-six instead of a V8. Their pitch is that once again the focus has been of delivering bags of torque just when required without sacrificing top-end power and performance while keeping fuel economy in mind.

And so now could you be tempted and dare to be a little different? If so we know of three brand-new Alpina B3 convertibles, two of which come in ‘Edition’ specs which mean that the bodywork, grilles, badges and wheels are all colour-matched. All cars will feature the 6-speed Sports Auto gearbox with Alpina Switch-Tronic.

There is a Black Sapphire ‘Edition’ with Red Dakota Leather Interior including Alpina roundels, Lavalina bi-colour package (steering wheel and stitching), 19″ Alpina Alloy wheels in black, red stitching to black gaiters, Alpina lettering embossed on all four headrests, Hi-Fi speaker system, USB/Audio interface, black painted ‘Kidney’ and lower grilles plus black model designation badging. Total on the road cost 57025 GBP

The Alpine white ‘Edition’ with Black Dakota leather comes with an almost identical spec for 57650 GBP and then there is a non-Edition model available in Black Sapphire with Black Dakota Leather for 55090 GBP.

For further details of these rare and fascinating BMW Alpinas please call us on 0845 6432047 or email sales@thecarspy.net 

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