Alpina-BMW

[Royal Tiger]

I posted about this car some time before, but it was on a dying thread and am curious if anyone here has more knowledge about these cars. The car dealer that had the Porsche 928 S4 and Mercedes-Benz SL 600 V-12 I drove also has a 1981 BMW 633 coupe. I think it says CSi or just Ci; not sure. What struck me was it has the round medalions on the hood and trunk, but instead of the BMW logos, it is a blue and red shield with ALPINA around the top. I typed ALPINA into Yahoo and found it is a company that uses BMWs and then changes them around for sale as it's own car. Anyone have some experience with these cars? This one is grey with a red leather interior and a 5 speed. It looks solid with some rust around the wheel wells starting to bubble under the paint. For $3250 it seems like a neat play car.

Alpina was Burkhard Bovinaiepen's [sp?] Bavarian tuning shop that provided numerous engine,suspension, transmission, steering and other upgrades especially designed for BMW owners of 1500,1600 and 2002 series BMW's who wished to race there cars or just take on a 911 or other high performance car during high speed cruising on the autobahn. In my opinion,from memory, Alpina was just as big on creating race inspired graphics on there car's as they were on there engine,suspension and transmission upgrades. The cars were extremely popular in most of Europe but attained a cult like following in England,Germany and the Netherlands in the late 60s and early 70's. There were later variants of Alpina's. But the 1500,1600 and 2002 series cars are the most famous. I can recall being in Germany in the late 60s and watching the 1500 and 1600 series Alpina cars racing against NSU's and 911's on the autobahn in excess of 120 mph.



www.bmw2002.co.uk/alpina.htm

[wawazat??]

Careful Dan, any 6 series BMW parts are EXPENSIVE! I looked at a 1987 M6 a couple of years back as I've always loved the 6 series. This one had the 256HP DOHC 6 cylinder, upgraded suspension, Michelin TRX wheels and was gorgeous. Lacked some service history. I spoke to a number of European/BMW parts suppliers who told me many things on the 6 series were NOT shared with other lines and were subsequently much more expensive. Beautiful but pricey...then again you are looking at 928's and SL's...

Todd

[Landshark]

Alpina 850 probably big bucks.

[Mr. Pockets]

I love the 850. What a neat car.

Of course, the interesting thing is that the SVX has very similar performance numbers and achieves those with half the number of cylinders.

[Landshark]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pockets

Of course, the interesting thing is that the SVX has very similar performance numbers and achieves those with half the number of cylinders.

...and probably half the weight - the 850 is a HEAVY pig.

nice looking car, but its more luxury touring than performance.

[SilverSpear]

over here guys, we have BMW's more than germany itself. Each person who loves speed gets a BMW, and we have lots of Alpinas and M series... Alpinas have always been considered as faster than the company's M series. it's like AMG in mercedes is done by mercedes itself, and Brabus is a private firm who upgrades even further the Mercedes's above the AMG level, this thing goes with Alpina in BMW's. Alpina is the "Brabus" of BMW. Most of the alpinas have a Turbo like button turned clockwise while driving allowing the car a further acceleration (maybe it is a kind of turbo or booster but run manually through this button and as one wishes...). The one you saw 633Ci.. is not an Alpina. A friend of mine has one, i think it was a 635csi with turbo or that booster or something... he used to call it B9 or B11 i forgot.... we need to ask about them one of our German SVX'ers in this Forum, BIPA???

Somebody called? Sorry it took me so long

I'm having a little trouble with this one - I have found no record of Alpina using BMW 633CSi so far. In 1981, Alpina was mostly producing the B7 model. In Nov 1981 they introduced the B9 which was initially based on the 635CSi.

Many, but not all B7 cars were based on the E24 model family, of which the 633CSi is actually a member (also made B7 with E12 and E28). But the 633 just isn't listed as having been used. They seem to have skipped right over it, going directly from the 630 to the 635.


Model...................BMW-Model..........kW/PS....Capacity....Nm....Cyl....Produced....# produced
B7 S Turbo Coupé...635CSi (E 24)...... 243/330....3453.......500.....6... 05/82 - 09/82.....30
B7 Turbo Coupé......630CSi (E 24)...... 221/300....2986.......462.....6... 12/78 - 02/82....153
B7 Turbo Coupé/1...635CSi (E 24/1)... 243/330....3430.......512.....6... 04/84 - 08/87....110
B7 Turbo Coupé/1...635CSi (E 24/1)... 235/320....3430.......520.....6... 10/86 - 06/88.....20

You can find the various makes/models on the Alpina web site... in English!
http://www.alpina-automobile.de/cms/...hp?sprache=en#

[SilverSpear]

Thanks for the assistance...

[Royal Tiger]

I'll have to double check what it says on the deck. It has the Alpina badges, but it could be a clone. Any VIN assistance?

[NapaBavarian]

For that price it is most likley a fake, these things were expensive new and still in very high demand so they demand a huge sum of money, but you can buy just the badges... try image searching "alpina e24" for pictures of the real thing.

As far as parts go the underside is almost identical to a 5 series, but here is the kicker, in 1983 it changed from the older 5 series platform to the newer platform while keeping the same body. Body and interrior parts may be a bit more difficult to locate than ford tarus, but no more so and probably easier than SVX parts. There are several companies that specialize in parts for older BMWs, the best I have found for stock parts-

bavarian autosport

http://www.bavauto.com/

racing parts

BMP

http://www.bmpdesign.com/