Inside go-faster BMW merchants Alpina
For 55 years Alpina has lurked on BMW’s shoulders – part devil, part angel – exploring more extreme possibilities. But is the brilliant new B5 the beginning of the end?
Nothing changes at Alpina. There was a designer once, but he wasn’t replaced. No need. The look, the feel, everything was decided early on, and hasn’t needed to change because it was all spot-on from the start.
Everything must change at Alpina. When all your products are derived from BMWs, and BMW is busy ditching diesel and embracing electrification, you have no choice but to follow suit. But how do you do that without losing what’s made the unchanging Alpina formula such a winner for 55 years?
This is the big question I’ve come to Buchloe, 60 miles west of Munich, to ask Andreas Bovensiepen, son of founder Burkard Bovensiepen. While I’m here I drive the new B5 – a car so brilliant, and so very Alpina, that it might as well have been designed specifically to demonstrate just how precious Alpina is. But also, let’s face it, how weird it is that Alpina still exists.
It’s not unusual for external tuning companies to have a close relationship with a major manufacturer, like Abt with Audi and Brabus with Mercedes. But Alpina’s connection with BMW is much closer. And whereas Abt and Brabus are essentially tuners and modifiers who make hotter versions for hard-bitten petrolheads, the Alpina approach is considerably more nuanced, with comfort and luxury high on the agenda. It has, since 1983, been ocially categorised as a manufacturer, not a tuner. Most of the assembly work on any Alpina is done on BMW production lines, but to Alpina spec. And while BMW won’t be making an estate version of the M5, it’s happy to facilitate Alpina’s B5, which is very much an M5 estate.
The B5 was not born to eclipse the M5, despite the Alpina’s advantages in terms of torque and top speed. Instead, it comes across as a more rounded, better balanced, less aggressive, more comfortable and ultimately a little more desirable multi-purpose driving machine. Even with the optional trademark silver or gold stripework created in the early ’70s by the brand’s one and only, now long-deceased, in-house designer, the ultimate 5-series is an enthralling undercover fast-lane hero as well as the uncrowned king of winding roads quick enough to be tackled in third gear and up.
The bespoke bumpers are fairly subtle aero and cooling aids, the silver multispoke turbine wheels have been an Alpina fixture for decades and the range of available cabin treatments still varies from functional with a twist to old-school opulent. Burkard Bovensiepen, now 84, prefers his personal car to be painted Alpina blue or Alpina green with glossy dark-veined elm veneer and small chequered leather insets.
The B5 saloon does 0-62mph in 3.4sec, 0.1 slower than the M5 Competition saloon. It passes 125mph after only 11.4sec and peaks at 205mph. The 4.4-litre BMW V8 on Alpina steroids delivers 613bhp and 590lb ft, slightly down on the M5 Comp’s power but 37lb ft up on its torque. But don’t think of it as a close race; it’s in fact an intriguing choice between two different characters. Where the M is sharp, sporty, spicy, the B is balanced, refined, compliant. While the BMW is at its best in Sport Plus, the Alpina gains a Comfort Plus mode. When it comes to suspension malleability, more traction-orientated xDrive calibration, and the sensitive integration of electronic and mechanical driving aids, the real centre of competence for vehicle dynamics is Buchloe rather than Garching. The M5 may be more fun to drive in the old-fashioned way – noise, tautness, response, involvement – but the B5 is the smoother operator, more relaxed long-distance cruiser and finer all-rounder, especially in Touring form. ⊲
BMW won’t make an M5 estate but is happy to facilitate the B5, which is very much an M5 estate
‘The V8, which is part of our DNA, won’t fit the picture forever’
ANDREAS BOVENSIEPEN
Since Burkard Bovensiepen retired from day-to-day duties in early 2020, sons Andreas, 58, and Florian, 54, have been jointly in charge of the 300 employees. While Florian is a full-on numbers guy, Andreas divides his focus between business and product. He started his career in the BMW chassis department before being appointed project leader of the Z8 programme. After seven years in Munich, the tall and lanky part-time race driver and hobby pilot returned to his family roots where his father ran the car and (from 1979) wine business.
Ever since Burkard created an innovative twin-carb version of the BMW 1500 back in 1965, Alpina has made no major strategic move without prior consent from the BMW HQ. In principle, the petrolheads from the Allgäu are free to do their own thing, but in reality every single project needs big brother’s blessing. It’s a harmonious two-way relationship; behind closed doors, the Buchloe R&D wizards have been working for years on selected BMW projects and components. The most recent commission concerned the completion of a bunch of personalised last-of-line i8s.
Andreas Bovensiepen is passionate on the overlapping subjects of continuing to build fast cars in a changing environment: which technologies future markets need; the opportunities for growth, and the risks; and the emotional and pragmatic clash between today’s twin-turbo V8s and the uncertain high-voltage future. His cautious side has been dominant recently: not a single new employee hired in the first 10 months of 2020, expansion plans on ice, Covid-19 slowing down the supply of cars from BMW, and the prospect of small-volume manufacturers having to renegotiate the CO2 exemptions granted by the EU. Despite the solid order bank, there has been the odd clot in the cashflow, so even the smallest investment comes under heavy scrutiny. ⊲