Litlle bit of history...BMW Alpina... ALPINA was founded by Burkhard Bovensiepen (1936 - present). His passion with performance vehicles began with the purchase of a used Fiat 1500. Not satisfied with the performance of the vehicle, he took it to a friend to give it a check-up and perform some tuning modifications. Burkhard and his friend added a Weber carburetor, a more aggressive camshaft and opened up the muffler. This raised the horsepower from 67 bhp to 75 bhp. Shortly thereafter, a cloud of blue smoke began to follow the car and Burkhard decided to stop driving Fiat. Bovensiepen had always been interested in BMW cars, and when BMW introduced the 1800 in 1963, which was more powerful than the 1500, the customers who had recently purchased a 1500 were disappointed; he saw an opportunity. The BMW four-cylinder engine had four well-designed intake ports and only one small carburetor, so he recognized that he could improve the performance of the car with modification to its intake system. And with that, the first BMW-ALPINA tuning kit was created. The tuning kits costed 980 DM including installation and raised performance of the 1500 to parity with the newer 1800. BMW’s research and development department tested the ALPINA kit and they found nothing wrong with ALPINAs work, so ALPINA got support from the factory which was invaluable. That support made the company’s products more desirable to BMW enthusiasts, but it also meant that installation of an ALPINA system did not void the BMW warranty. ALPINA did not receive immediate acclaim from the press. Auto motor und Sport said that ALPINA’s engine modifications would have have a bad effect on longevity and reliability. Bovensiepen asked Auto motor und Sport to test the car instead of just commenting on the concept of BMW tuning. That test showed that the ALPINA-1500 was equal in terms of performance of the 1800 model. The ALPINA car showed no signs of stress or fragility. Auto motor und Sport were clearly enthusiastic about the ALPINA’s performance. They also noted that the quality of the car’s fit and finish was such that it appeared to have come directly from BMW. BMW was very impressed and when the higher-performance 1800 ti was introduced, it was fitted with engine components identical to those developed by ALPINA. Today, the ALPINA headquarters and factory is located in Buchloe, Germany. I was fortunate enough to able to spend an entire day in this marvelous tuning facility and If you own one of this thoroughbred machine..keep them, and pamper them,they are not just a CAR...
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 02:00:35 +0000
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