Alpina – which was founded in 1965 – stems from the ambitions of Burkard Bovensiepen. The young German drove a Fiat 124 Sport Spider in the early 1960s, but found the four-cylinder in the front a bit too cowardly. He developed a double Weber carburettor for the Italian sports car, but to his annoyance blew up the engine. Bovensiepen therefore started looking for a more reliable alternative. He found it in the form of the BMW 1500.
Alpina kit available through official BMW dealers, with retention of warranty
The Bovensiepen staging set was just right. BMW had to contend with production problems, which left buyers waiting a long time for their 1500, which by then had already been outclassed by the 10 hp more powerful 1800. To ease the pain for its customers, BMW decided to add the Alpina kit (plus 10 hp). for the 1500) through official dealers and with retention of warranty. That was the beginning of a close collaboration between the manufacturer and its home tuner.
BMW 3.0 CSL and BMW X5 4.6s developed by Alpina
In 1970 Alpina won the European Touring Car Championship. BMW then asked the small company from Buchloe to design a lightweight version of the 3.0 CS: the legendary 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’. Other models that BMW outsourced were the South African 333i (1985 – 1987) and the X5 4.6is (2001 – 2004). Currently Alpina supplies fast versions of the 3 series (B3 and D3 S), 5 series (B5 and D5 S), 7 series (B7), 8 series (B8), X3 (XD3), X4 (XD4) and X7 (XB7). They all leave the production line at BMW.
More and more requests from Dutch customers
According to Alpina director Andreas Bovensiepen, his company has received more and more requests from Dutch customers in recent years. “We are pleased to be working with BMW dealer Dusseldorp and look forward to a very good partnership.” Alpina will have a special place in the showroom at the Dusseldorp branches in Apeldoorn and The Hague. The technical staff and sales staff have had special Alpina training.