The E30 will certainly go down in history as one of the most desirable BMWs ever made, and that’s especially true in the case of the ALPINA versions. There were quite a few released throughout the life cycle of the second-generation Series, including the B6 3.5 featured here. However, this car wasn’t originally a 3.5 as the first owner ordered the sports sedan as the B6 2.8.
Shortly after taking delivery of the vehicle, ALPINA came out with the more potent B6 3.5. This came as a major disappointment for the person who acquired the B6 2.8 since he would’ve obviously wanted the beefier variant. Born in Nazi Germany-occupied Alsace before moving to the UK later in his life, the original owner Peter was rightfully upset with the company for not telling him about the impending arrival of a hotter model with an enlarged engine.
He got in touch with ALPINA and the two parties eventually came to an agreement to convert his B6 2.8 to a B6 3.5 at a discounted price. However, don’t go into thinking he received a great deal since the cost of the transformation was still a whopping 20% of the value of his new car. For the money spent, he did have the opportunity to meet the man himself, Burkard Bovensiepen, who handed him over the keys to his personal ALPINA 7 Series.
He drove that car over a weekend in April 1986 while the engineers were busy converting his 3 Series to the B6 3.5 specification. On Monday morning, he now had an E30 that was making 261 horsepower and 346 Newton-meters (255 pound-feet) of torque, thus outpunching BMW’s own M3 by a significant margin. For his money’s worth, Peter and his wife got a pair of ALPINA ski jackets, a scarf, and a still-unworn cap from Bovensiepen.
Carl Cox, the current owner of the car, is rightfully enamored with his B6 3.5. The mint-condition ALPINA has all the paperwork documenting the official conversion, including the letters about the negotiations held by Peter with the company to perform the engine change.
Source: Brightside Media / YouTube
