ALPINA TIMELINE

1949 Alpina Buromaschinenwerke-vertrieb Bovensiepen AG founded by Dr Rudolph Bovensiepen, selling office supplies

1962 Burkard Bovensiepen begins to sell his Neue Klasse ‘Alpina’ tuning kit

1964 Bovensiepen’s modifications get BMW approval, retaining manufacturer’s warranty

1965 Office-supply firm is sold, Burkard Bovensiepen sets up his own company of eight employees

1967 Distinctive logo adopted (r)

1968 Alpina enters the European Touring Car Championship

1969 The firm moves to Buchloe, taking exclusive rights to its name

1970 Alpina claims ETCC and German Hillclimb Championship titles, plus the Spa 24

1971 Buchloe takes charge of the development of BMW’S 3.0 CSL

1975 A dealership network is created

1977 Dieter Quester wins the ETCC; Alpina stops racing to focus on its roadgoing models

1978 First complete cars are offered: B6 2.8, B7 Turbo and B7 Turbo Coupé

1981 Modified 318i wins the Shell Kilometre Marathon for fuel efficiency

1983 Alpina becomes a manufacturer in its own right. Sytner granted exclusive UK rights 1987 An early adopter of catalytic converter technology, the firm enters an M3 so-equipped in the German Touring Car Championship. Withdraws from racing once again the next year

1989 Launches its fastest road car to date, the B10 Bi-turbo, to mark its 25th anniversary

1993 Switch-tronic automatic gearbox with manual control from the steering wheel unveiled

1999 First diesel performance car, the E39-based D10 Bi-turbo Alpina, is launched

2002 Enters the US market with its Switch-tronic version of the BMW Z8

2003 B7 saloon gains a supercharger (below)

2008 A new engineering, testing and development centre marks the biggest expansion in the company’s history

2009 Returns to racing in the FIA GT3 Championship

2015 Celebrates its 50th anniversary with 50 limited-edition cars based on the 5 and 6 Series