Japanese Alpina stash uncovered
Snapper stumbles across a Far Eastern necropolis – but it’s not as morbid as it seems
An extraordinary graveyard of rare and rather valuable Alpina BMWS has been discovered in Japan by professional car photographer Mark Riccioni. He visited the country on business in October last year and found the location about an hour north of Tokyo.
‘I’d seen blog photos of abandoned Japanese racing cars and, through digging around, managed to figure out where it was and who the company was.’
He returned earlier this year and took out his camera. The big surprise for Mark – and every other BMW nut who sees the striking images – was the presence of more than just domestic track cars. He explains, ‘I had no idea the Alpinas even existed there. All I’d seen were some EK9 Civics and a Supra JGTC car, which were parked out the front. The story goes that nearly 30 years ago a customer turned up in an Alpina that needed some work. They weren’t specialists, but they got it going again. Through word of mouth, many years later they’re now looked upon as Alpina specialists.’
The Alpina variants we can identify from
SEND US YOUR BARN FINDS – BEST ONE WINS £100 ‘The guys there know exactly what they’re sitting on – most cars arrived before they became modern classics’
the pictures include a B6 3 Series, a 2002based A1 (or more likely a ratty 2002 with an Alpina decal), a couple of E28 5 Seriesbased B7s and what might be a B10 Turbo. There’s are also some more humble BMWS, oddments like a grubby C3 Corvette and obscure Japanese family saloons.
Most will eventually be restored, reckons Mark. ‘There was a B12 7 Series in the workshop in October, and it’s now in the nearest storage lot while they wait for parts. The majority of cars there will be either used for restoration or for parts to restore future builds. The guys there know exactly what they’re sitting on, though most of the cars arrived there long before they became modern classics in the past few years.’
Alpina was founded in Bavaria in 1965 by Burkard Bovensiepen, who used the facilities at his father’s typewriter factory to develop a twin-carb kit for the BMW 1500. In the Seventies Alpina offered its first complete cars based on the 2002 and the E21 3 Series, soon joined by the E12 and E28 5 Series and eventually the 6 Series and 7 Series too. Production of each model rarely exceeded double figures per year so early Alpinas are scarce – and valuable.