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► Lurking behind BMW for 55 years
► Is brilliant B5 the beginning of the end?
Nothing changes at Alpina. There was a designer once, but he wasn t replaced. No need. The look, the feel, everything was decided early on, and hasn t needed to change because it was all spot-on from the start.
Everything must change at Alpina. When all your products are derived from BMWs, and BMW is busy ditching diesel and embracing electrification, you have no choice but to follow suit. But how do you do that without losing what s made the unchanging Alpina formula such a winner for 55 years?
This is the big question I ve come to Buchloe, 60 miles west of Munich, to ask Andreas Bovensiepen, son of founder Burkard Bovensiepen. While I m here I drive the new B5 – a car so brilliant, and so very Alpina, that it might as well have been designed specifically to demonstrate just how precious Alpina is. But also, let s face it, how weird it is that Alpina still exists.