Archive for Alpina
1999 Alpina B12 6.0 For Sale in Spain
The owner of this fine car contacted me about posting his car for sale, and though I usually focus on cars for sale available in the U.S., I would never say no to an Alpina! Check out his 1999 Alpina B12 for sale on his own micro-site:
quote from seller’s for sale website:
The B12 6.0 E-KAT is the fastest Alpina ever to be based on the BMW E38 7-series and also features the largest and most powerful engine in its history. In order to achieve the healthy 430hp (DIN), the 6.0 litres engine is fitted with light Mahle aluminum pistons, reworked camshafts, intakes and exhaust, BOSCH Motronic M5.2.1 fuel injection and various other features. Torque in this V12 engine rises to 600 Nm, 500 of which are available at only 1700 rpm.
Alpina Switch-TronicThe E-KAT part of the nomenclature represents the exhaust systems with steel catalyst that greatly lowers emissions without having a large impact on performance. All this power is sent to the wheels (wrapped in 245/40ZR20 tyres up front and 275/35ZR20 out back) through the only available gearbox, the Alpina Switch-Tronic unit developed in conjunction with ZF.
The BMW e38 really is a fine platform and I can only imagine what the Alpina version brings to the table. According to the Alpina Archive website entry on the B12, it’ll do a standing quarter mile faster than a Ferrari 355!
Good luck with the sale Simon!
dc
1982 BMW e28 Alpina B9 Clone
Here is an interesting car, and a damn fine looking one at that! It’s a gray market import that has been converted as an Alpina B9 tribute. It’s on eBay right now for $27k buy-it-now. Check out these beautiful pictures used in the listing:
Excerpt from the eBay listing for this car:
This is a 1982 BMW E28 528i (euro car) built as a tribute to an Alpina B9 3.5. It is not a real Alpina. It is not a clone, as it has not been built to exact standards, using exact parts and processes as Alpina did when they built the real B9 3.5 cars. This car was built using some Alpina parts, some modern parts and some just plain reliable parts…along with a lot of blood, sweat and…money. The car is not perfect. It has imperfections. They will be listed in this essay. This car was in Bimmer Magazine # 56
A gentlemen in Newport Beach by the name of Ron Perry built 95% of this car. He pretty much did all the visual Alpina Tribute stuff that you see today. Ron worked endlessly on the paint finish, installing the Alpina stripe kit, Alpina replica front spoiler and real Alpina rear spoiler. Ron had fabric made to closely match the Alpina pattern and then had the interior recovered in it. Ron installed the Alpina instrument cluster, Alpina leather steering wheel, Alpina wood shift knob and Alpina dead pedal.
Ron then moved to the engine bay. The engine is a euro M30B34 bored and stroked to 3.7L using Venolia pistons. It has been updated to later Motronic running a 059 ECU. I had a custom chip burned to take into account the 3.7L, 284 cam, 19lbs injectors and big headers. The chip never really worked well and I went back to a stock 059 chip. The engine has been able to achieve the best drivability tune with the stock chip, thus no further work was done on another chip. The 3.7L chip is included with the sale.
The modifications aren’t necessarily all Alpina sourced, but are where they need to be to convince most people. And the modifications probably add up to over the $27k asking when you consider the specialty parts and pricey performance upgrades, like the rebuilt 3.7 stroker motor with upgraded cam, engine management, headers, and injectors. Or the authentic cosmetic Alpina add-on’s all over the car. This car is amazing!
However, I have some issues that I need to note. First is that the actual mileage of the car is unknown. On top of the fact that it is a recreation car and not an original, knowing if the car was a 30k, 150k, or 400k+ mile car would make it easier to put a price on. And finally, I personally think part of what makes vintage Alpina values hover in the 20’s and 30’s these days is that they are sought after by extreme enthusiasts that want the real thing. Like 2002tii buyers who will pay huge premiums over regular 02’s. And while this car is clearly an amazing piece of work with some very expensive additions, and wonderful execution, it is someone’s project car at the end of the day. $27k is probably what it is worth to the seller. Of course it’s always tough to put a price on a car like this. But in this case I think high teens is a more likely to fetch a buyer. But on the other hand, if I had this car and this much work invested, I wouldn’t be in a rush to sell it.
Update 9.15.08 - It’s still on eBay from the same seller, but the buy-it-now has fallen to $15k. This is sounding much more realistic. Good luck to the seller!
Here’s a link to a VWVortex thread made by the photographer that has lots more pictures with links to hi-res.
dc
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