{"id":14713,"date":"2022-03-25T07:52:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T07:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/?p=14713"},"modified":"2022-03-30T15:04:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T15:04:29","slug":"alpina-for-the-connoisseurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/alpina-for-the-connoisseurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpina \u2013 For the Connoisseurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the news earlier this month that Alpina has been acquired by the very company who’s cars it seeks to improve upon we thought we would take a closer look at the famous BMW tuner<\/a>. From where it all began in a shed behind a typewriter factory in the early ’60s to realising its full potential and fully becoming a part of the firm that inspired it in the first place, the Alpina story is an interesting one that has come full circle. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but to claim that Alpina merely copies what has gone before with their take on BMWs would be severely selling the company short. In a nutshell Alpina historically takes base-model BMW cars from the factory and modifies them mechanically and cosmetically at its workshops in Buchloe in order to improve upon the original and create a more bespoke driving experience. Work was originally limited to modifying factory carburettors, cylinder heads and crankshafts in order to extract more power from BMW engines but this quickly expanded and the business grew into the Alpina we know today – a company that produces more luxury-orientated versions of BMW cars with an emphasis on individuality and speed.<\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

Craving more from life than manufacturing typewriters, a young German engineer by the name of Burkard Bovensiepen, and with a passion for making cars go faster, decided he wanted to run an automobile tuning business instead. Now that may seem like quite the departure but in actual fact Bovensiepen already had his foot in the door after developing a dual Weber carburettor for his BMW 1500 in 1962. So effective was this modification that it garnered the attention of BMW’s sales chief Paul G. Hahnemann who promptly certified the quality of the young German engineer’s work in 1964, awarding vehicles fitted with the system the full BMW factory guarantee. This was practically unheard of in the automotive world but was all the impetus Bovensiepen needed to pursue his tuning ambitions. And so Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen KG was established in 1965, in a sleepy town fifty miles west of Munich. It was here, in Kaufbeuren, that a small team of eight employees set to work fettling carburettors and crankshafts with the simple aim of making BMWs go faster. If you look closely at the Alpina logo you’ll see these fledgling endeavours forever embellished there as a reminder of those early days and the company quickly established itself as a serious player in the automotive tuning market.<\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

Not content with simply extracting more power from those early BMW engines, Bovensiepen and his team decided they wanted to test the mettle of their creations and compete in motorsport, diving head first into the European Touring Car Championship in 1968. Go big or go home, as they say. As it turns out Alpina knew what it was doing and 1970 saw the company take the title not only in the ETCC but also the Spa 24 Hours and various top tier hill climb, rally and track racing competitions too. With notable racers including Derek Bell, James Hunt, Jacky Ickx and Niki Lauda behind the wheel throughout Alpina’s motorsport career, taking numerous trophies along the way, Bovensiepen had certainly proven a point before retiring from racing in 1988 to get back to concentrating the company’s efforts on its production output.<\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

During this time of competition success Alpina would go on to help develop one of the most famous and evocative BMWs ever produced: The 3.0 CSL. After convincing BMW that a lighter version would make the car much more competitive in Touring Car racing (the L in CSL stands for leicht<\/em> which is light in German). BMW promptly and confidently handed the reigns to Bovensiepen and his team who led the project, resulting in the lightweight BMW 3.0 CSL Coup\u00e9 in 1972. If you don’t know how that story goes, spoiler alert: it won. A lot.<\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

Things were progressing nicely from a business perspective for Alpina too. Following the introduction of three complete Alpina cars in 1978; the B6 2.8 – a 3 Series BMW with a six-cylinder engine instead of the usual four-pot, the B7 Turbo, which was based on the 5 Series BMW and hailed as the fastest saloon in the world at the time, and the 300bhp B7 Turbo Coup\u00e9, Alpina is officially registered as an automobile manufacturer by the German Ministry of Transport in 1983. The upshot of this is that all Alpina cars are now branded and registered as such as well as still qualifying for servicing at all BMW dealerships. It was a milestone for the company and paved the way for the future successful collaboration between the two German firms.<\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

With BMW becoming more and more controlled and orderly in the way it made its cars, Alpina was able to push the boundaries of what a BMW could be even further, unconstrained by the same forces, and no car was more evident of this work ethic than the B10 Bi-Turbo unveiled in 1989. Based on the BMW 5-series it again earned the title of fastest production saloon in the world at the time and that should tell you all you need to know about Alpina and their ethos. This was the fully realised potential of an already accomplished car and showed just what Alpina was capable of.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alpina wasn’t just improving upon what came before, however, they were also forging ahead with bespoke technologies, setting trends for the entire automotive industry with such endeavours as its ‘Shift-Tronic’ and ‘Switch-Tronic’ clutch and auto gearbox solutions as well as being the first automobile manufacturer to develop an electrically-heated catalytic converter, drastically reducing emissions. Alpina was transcending its origins as a simple tuning company and these advances laid the foundations for further success and the slew of excellent cars in the Alpina line-up that we see today, from the B3 to the XB7 and everything in between.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With a career spanning 50 years Alpina has proven time and again that it can make an already great car even better and by sticking to limited production numbers ensures that the exclusivity that fans of the brand crave remains ever-present. Working closely alongside BMW for so long, with products spanning the entire line-up, Alpina continues to be an innovative company producing unique versions of these beloved Bavarians. If you think about it, it was kind of inevitable that BMW would realise just how big a part of its identity Alpina has always been and bring it in-house to take advantage of, and continue to nurture the brand. Not only will this align the two companies even further but it will also make it easier for Alpina to operate as they won’t have to potentially struggle to keep pace with the myriad technical developments deployed by such a mammoth company as BMW.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Whatever happens now, long may Alpina continue to push the envelope and produce highly individual vehicles where attention to detail and bespoke craftsmanship consistently shine through. Vehicles that allow us, the car buying public, to continue to express ourselves and enjoy these evolutionary steps in the BMW journey. Cars that have that extra je ne sais quo<\/em>i. Or should we say ich wei\u00df nicht was<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the news earlier this month that Alpina has been acquired by the very company who’s cars it seeks to improve upon we thought we would take a closer look…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[819],"tags":[1724,15,45,963,13,11,14,16,3361,3956],"yoast_head":"\nAlpina \u2013 For the Connoisseurs - Car & Classic Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With BMW having acquired Alpina earlier this month we take a look at what makes the German tuning company such a special and enduring entity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/alpina-for-the-connoisseurs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alpina \u2013 For the Connoisseurs - 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