{"id":83859,"date":"2025-09-30T13:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T17:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83859"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:00:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T17:00:37","slug":"how-alpina-differs-from-bmw-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83859","title":{"rendered":"What Makes ALPINA Different From BMW M? The CEO Explains"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALPINA\u2019s story has always been about doing things differently from BMW. Not louder, not harsher, but definitely quicker and more refined. In a recent interview, Andreas Bovensiepen<\/a>, son of the founder and current head of the brand, reflects on how ALPINA carved out its own identity. From squeezing big power out of early 3 and 5 Series models, to pioneering turbocharged luxury sedans, Bovensiepen retraces the steps. Along the way, he shares how performance, comfort, and even a few happy accidents defined his father\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

How ALPINA Sets Itself Apart from BMW M<\/h3>\n

Bovensiepen begins, somewhat logically, at one of the earliest ALPINA models \u2014 the E21 3 Series. \u201cWhen we did cars like the E21, it was a 2.8-liter engine and 200 horsepower,\u201d he says. \u201cThis was very unique, because the 323 from BMW was 143 horepower, so it was 50% higher horsepower.\u201d For those who forget, while the 323i did receive a six-pot, ALPINA fitted a larger 2.8-liter engine from the contemporary 528i. ALPINA further decked out the 2.8-liter mill with Mahle pistons, modified combustion chambers, higher compression, and more. \u201cThis was quite uncommon,\u201d Bovensiepen says.<\/p>\n

He continues to illustrate how ALPINA set new performance precedents in an era before widespread turbocharging. Or, even before BMW had a V8 or V12 engine in the mix. \u201cThe only solution,\u201d he says, discussing how to make more power in the E12 BMW 5 Series<\/a>, \u201cwas to use turbos.\u201d At the time, the B7 Turbo was the fastest sedan in the world, with around 300 horsepower. A Coupe equivalent was similarly one of the most powerful coupes in the world. But big power wasn\u2019t the only goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of power delivery, it was more like a Bentley,\u201d Bovensiepen tells the host. \u201cA lot of torque on the bottom,\u201d he says, emphasizing the luxurious and more \u201ceffortless\u201d feel that ALPINA tuned cars provide. He finally compares it to BMW M. \u201cBMW M went in a direction with four valves per cylinder head, more about high-revving,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a completely different attitude of gaining horsepower. And the cars were completely different to drive.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALPINA Isn\u2019t Making a \u201cBetter M Car\u201d<\/h3>\n

Bovensiepen continues to explain how the brand sets itself apart from outwardly similar BMW M. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to make a better M car,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo, of course it was the idea of my father to go more in the luxury direction.\u201d Rather than the \u201crace car for the road,\u201d Bovensiepen says the brand set out to make each car a \u201cvery nice cruiser for the Autobahn.\u201d Another way ALPINA differentiated itself from BMW? Interior appointments, which Bovensiepen says began in the late 1960s with sport seats from Scheel and later Recaro.<\/p>\n

However, it wasn\u2019t necessarily the most thought-out operation, Bovensiepen explains. \u201cNot everything was strategically planned out,\u201d he starts, \u201csome things happened by accident.\u201d One such accident was the ALPINA blue<\/a> and green<\/a> \u2014 the latter of which came from a sponsor\u2019s request to paint one of their E9 CSLs in green. Apparently, Bovensiepen Senior simply liked the color and ran with it. Who knew ALPINA was the Bob Ross painting of automotive tuning houses?<\/p>\n

Source: MotoManTV Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALPINA\u2019s story has always been about doing things differently from BMW. Not louder, not harsher, but definitely quicker and more refined. In a recent interview, Andreas Bovensiepen, son of the founder and current head of the brand, reflects on how ALPINA carved out its own identity. From squeezing big power out of early 3 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}