If you know me at all or even remotely follow these posts, you’ll know we’re here for two reasons. The lesser here, amazingly, is that this is an Alpina. Now, modern Alpinas may have lost some of the unique character that the company infused into them in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, but they’re still very special and very rare cars to see. But let’s get to the real reason this one caught my eye…and will catch the eye of anyone, really. This particular 2019 B7 xDrive was run through BMW’s Individual department. Now, the color isn’t disclosed in the ad, but I’m pretty sure this is one of my favorites – Java Green Metallic.
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We have 15 years of archives. Links older than a year may have been updated to point to similar cars available to bid on eBay.Category: BMW
A look back at the top 10 posts on our blog from the past year. What German enthusiast autos are you looking for in 2023?…
2 CommentsI give Audi a lot of credit for bringing the R8 to market. It took a fair amount of gall for a company best known for mid-range all-wheel drive luxury sedans to up and produce a supercar-beating mid-engine road car capable of being used year-round and every day. It’s a feat nearly without precedent. Of course, I said “nearlyâ€.
That’s because BMW pulled off a similar trick the best part of thirty years before Audi did it. And arguably the development of what would become BMW’s fledgling Motorsports division was even more impressive than what Ingolstadt pulled off. The M1 burst onto the scene at a time of economic austerity, global oil crises and came from a company who not only didn’t have a history of producing such cars, but didn’t have connections to others who did (unlike Audi’s corporate Lamborghini partnership).
Speaking of Lamborghini, because of BMW’s lack of expertise in supercar design it was the Sant’Agata firm that was employed to produce the M1. But because of Lamborghini’s lack of expertise at being…well, a company capable of producing something on a schedule, BMW engineers had to first liberate the early molds from Italy and then find someone who could produce the car. Ultimately, it was a combination of ItalDesign in Turin, Marchesi metal working in Modena to build the frames, and Karosserie Baur in Stuttgart that stuck the M1 together. Though it doesn’t exactly sound like a match made in heaven, and indeed the M1 was a relative sales flop, it has nonetheless grown to cult status as one of the most user-friendly supercars of the late 1970s: