1986 Alpina B9 3.5 Coupe for sale

What happens when you take a BMW tuner that turns all BMWs into shark-nosed road monsters and unleash it upon the sharkiest of all BMWs?

Ubershark.

Obviously based on the E24, Alpina applies their usual chunky front and rear spoilers, tron-graphics, and infinitely-spoked wheels to create the B9 3.5 Coupe.  A subtle but vast improvement on the NA 635CSi is the Euro bumpers.  All this combines for one mean looking package with some beef behind it, as the Alpina came with an improved 3.5L I6 pushing out 245hp, a healthy boost over the 635’s 215hp.  That power is nice, but really, you’re buying this car for the looks.  This example is in North Wales, GB and is far from perfect, but it’s only covered 56k miles and could be made great.

There are some things wrong with this car.  Some cracks here and there, notably the front splitter and the dash.  It’s in Wales, and though they offer a shipping option, you will may run into some federalization issues.  The biggest turn off for me about this car though is the chunky automatic gear selector in the middle.

Acknowledging those shortcomings, there’s a lot of awesomeness going on here, almost entirely in the looks department.  Holy cow.  Those lines, the spoilers, and the wheels that really tie the room together.  Notice how when the center caps are gone, it’s a totally different look?  Yeah, those wheels are the hotness.  Anyways.  It’s been posted before and it’s stuck at $4k on eBay now, so something in the “cons” section is keeping people away.  For me, it’s worth a chunk of money just to look at.

-NR

Aaron also came across this car and adds these thoughts.

1985 BMW 6-Series Alpina B9 for Sale
May 19, 2010 by Aaron

If you did not see my rant last week, I was going on and on (and on) about the rarity of real Alpina’s in the states. As if on cue a company by the name of Performance Legends in North Wales has listed three Alpina’s on eBay. All three of which look to be in good to excellent condition. Alpina’s are far more common in the UK, so the seller’s notion to offer these up to buyers in the states is a stroke of genius. Here is an example:

1985 BMW 6-Series Alpina B9 for Sale:

From the seller’s ad –

“Welcome to this listing for a very rare Alpina B9 3.5 Coupe that we recently imported from Japan. We are experienced importers and exporters of specialist performance cars and we can offer shipping of this car from the UK to the US East Coast for $2000. We would like you to be totally comfortable buying from us so if you would like more photos of the car or any particular areas of the car, please let us know and we will get them for you. The Alpina VIN is WAPB935C05B910557 and we have verified that the engine and head numbers are original and matching with the Alpina factory records. The car is number B9-557 according to the Alpina plaque on the centre console and was built in Buchloe in July 1985.

We can supply the car with either its original 16″ alloy wheels or the 17″ wheels also shown. If you would like both sets there will be an additional cost. This B9 is in good condition especially considering that it is nearly 25 years old, with both sound bodywork and mechanicals. The car is fully UK registered with all paperwork and all import taxes paid already. There is some minor cosmetic work required to make this car perfect, but nothing major and most importantly there is no rot in the bodywork.

In our opinion the mileage of the car is original, and it has never been accident damaged although we can not guarantee either of these things due to its age. The engine, gearbox and other mechanical parts are in excellent condition and we have just completed a full fluid service including spark plugs and filters. The interior is also in excellent condition with only a couple of minor faults. This Alpina drives very well indeed and I was very pleasantly surprised how nice it is when I recently completed 100 mile trip in it. Everything seems to work ok including the electrics etc. We are having a stock clear-out and as such we will listen to any sensible offers, however as it is a really nice car and deserves to go to a good home, we will not be giving it away.”

I chose the B9 as it is my favorite Alpina, while this one is not perfect it is a knockout as it sits. It is rare to find a seller so willing to export to the states, a starting bid of less than $13k and another $2k for shipping does not seem unreasonable. It would also take some cash to federalize this B9, however, the older these cars get the easier they are the federalize. There are several boutique dealers on the West Coast that will work with the seller to import the car and handle the necessary paperwork and needed changes to make the car US road ready.

If you did not see my rant last week, I was going on and on (and on) about the rarity of real Alpina’s in the states. As if on cue a company by the name of Performance Legends in North Wales has listed three Alpina’s on eBay. All three of which look to be in good to excellent condition. Alpina’s are far more common in the UK, so the seller’s notion to offer these up to buyers in the states is a stroke of genuis. Here is an example:
Is it worth it? Would it be easier to import one of these cars from Toronto which has become the Alpina capitol of North America? I have the feeling that Alpina fans are going to kick themleves in 20 years when they are even more scarce than they are now. What say you? Any Alpina owners out there who care to comment on these cars?

~Aaron.