Alpina is a world leading tuning house, specialising
in building cars based on BMW chassis – in fact they are an official
manufacturer using BMW shells and some running gear, however, like Abarth, and AMG, Alpina has remained separate from the donor company. They are based in
Bavaria, southern Germany.
The company that became Alpina was founded in 1961 by
Burkard Bovensiepen to modify Weber carbs for the recently released BMW 1500.
Bovensiepen’s father ran a company called Alpina that made typewriters – similar
to the German Triumph-Adler company. The BMW components were manufactured at
the back of the failing typewriter factory.
Bovensiepen took BMW engines, added in the new carbs
and retuned them ready for the customer. Even BMW liked what they were doing and
endorsed the products and extended the factory warranty to Alpina built engines
and later, the full cars.
In 1965 Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen was founded after
the original company had collapsed and two years later they released their new
logo – a similar circle to BMW but with what appears to be a heraldic emblem.
If you look closely you will see that the emblem is in fact a crankshaft and a
carburettor!
To help market the tuning parts, Alpina went touring
car racing in Europe with some top names like Jacky Ickx, Derek Bell and Niki
Lauda. The success of the team with 1970 being an exceptional year with the
European Touring Car title and various major wins means that BMW commissions
Alpina to build the lightweight 3 litre CSL Coupe (known as the Batmobile).
This was also a huge success with another European title in 73.
1973 was the year of the first oil crisis and unlike
many sports car manufacturers and tuning houses, Alpina survived by developing
engines that provided the same power but running on a lower grade fuel.
The business was growing nicely and a dealer network
was founded with importers assigned for the UK and Switzerland in 75. At the
end of the 70s, Alpina was one of the first companies to offer fully electronic
ignition on their models – one of many firsts that Alpina have.
The business then took another step in 1983 with the
company becoming an authorised car manufacturer by the Government. Around the
same time, Alpina built a BMW 318 that could do over 100 miles per gallon as
part of the Shell Kilometer Marathon. That’s around 2.8 litres per 100 kms! My
Honda drinks between 9 and 11 litres per 100kms in normal driving!
Other firsts for Alpina were the use of metallic
rather than ceramic catalytic converters and in 93, Switch-tronic semi automatic
gearboxes using paddle levers behind the steering wheel.
Although their models are based on BMW models, they
are badged as Alpina B models (although there is currently a D model, using a
Diesel motor too). Currently there are D3 and B3 Biturbo models, the B5S, B6S
and B7 and with those numbers it is easy to see which BMW series they are based
on. The B5 and B6 models are supercharged and the B3 also includes
all-wheel-drive systems.
They don’t just slot in a bigger motor and retune the
car; they typically put in a motor that provides better torque delivery. For
example, BMW sell the M5, a monster 500hp V10 engined car. The Alpina version
is the B5S and uses a supercharged 530hp V8 with a much wider power delivery
band.
They build around 700 cars annually and in 2008 Alpina opened a new engineering centre to continue their state of the art
developments.