Burkard Bovensiepen, the founding father of German performance marque Alpina, handed away final week at the age of 87.
Alpina remains to be not extensively recognized within the U.S., however for BMW diehards the model is synonymous with efficiency, luxurious and craftsmanship.
Based within the state of Bavaria, the identical as BMW, Alpina was based in 1965 as a tuner of BMW automobiles, making it older than BMW’s personal M division, which celebrated its 50th anniversary final yr.
Bovensiepen was concerned within the manufacturing of typewriters early in his profession, however he had a ardour for quick automobiles and within the early Nineteen Sixties began tinkering with the carburetors and revising the cylinder heads of a BMW 1500 he owned. It rapidly changed into a enterprise, and that enterprise rapidly produced autos that have been successful on racetracks.
By 1983, Alpina had develop into an formally acknowledged producer of vehicles and each BMW and Alpina have loved a long-lasting relationship centered on the creation of potent machines.
That relationship develop into a lot nearer final yr when BMW acquired the rights to the Alpina name. The deal places BMW answerable for Alpina automobile manufacturing starting in 2025, whereas Alpina itself, immediately run by Bovensiepen’s son Andreas, will concentrate on automobile improvement in addition to the service, components, and equipment facet of the enterprise.
Alpina autos are extremely wanted, however the firm’s restricted capability means it solely builds just a few thousand autos yearly. As a end result, its merchandise are inclined to promote out rapidly. With BMW set to take over manufacturing, it’s seemingly volumes will improve and presumably extra fashions will likely be launched.
This article was initially printed by Motor Authority, an editorial companion of ClassicCars.com
