There are few car company owners like Andreas Bovensiepen. For starters, ALPINA is a very small manufacturer, of which there aren’t many left. However, even among them, Bovensiepen is part of a rare breed, as he’s not only a proper gearhead but he’s an outstanding driver. A few years ago, Joe Achilles had the chance to ride shotgun in the ALPINA B7 with Bovensiepen at the wheel, something I’m incredibly jealous of. In this new unreleased video from that day, we see the roles reversed.
After blitzing the ALPINA B7 with Achilles in the passenger seat, Bovensiepen wanted to sit in the back seat and let Achilles drive. During that drive, Bovensiepen talks about how ALPINA tunes its cars, how that tuning differs from other manufacturers (including BMW) and why that tuning is better. That might sound arrogant but if you’ve ever driven an ALPINA product, you’d know that he’s right. There’s just something about ALPINAs that feels better than most other premium cars, including their BMW counterparts.
This is a good interview and Bovensiepen is a fascinating man to listen to. I’ve had the pleasure of talking to him a couple of times, in both interview and casual settings, and he’s a great guy to talk to about cars. He understands both the engineering side and the driving side so well that he provides excellent insight.
In this interview, I do like how Bovensiepen sort of knocks other car manufacturers for their steering and throttle tuning. His points are valid. Furthermore, he backs that talk up because ALPINA products do feel more linear, more responsive and just better overall than almost anything they compete with. For instance, drive a standard 7 Series of any sort and then hop in an ALPINA B7 and they feel like different cars, with the latter feeling better.
Check this interview out and listen to one of the most interesting minds in the business. Also, check out Achilles’ previous interview with Bovensiepen at the wheel to see how much of a madman he can be.
Ah finally, the link to the Joe Achilles interview of Andreas driving the B7. I love it when they are at 205 MPH on the autobahn talking like they were in a Buick on any old interstate.
As an aside, at one of my BMW CCA meetings last year, I met a very cool F82 M4 driving lady that had a book about Alpina in English and German. Well this lady has quite an amateur competition history and mentioned one of her instructors at the Nordschleife was named Andy. Last name was Bovensiepen.
Andy is awesome. Took a few rides with him also. On the track, he’s unbelievable
How fortunate you were!
Fun job, can’t complain. Despite the 24/7 on all the time.
But Andy is awesome. Had many many events together, saw his wine collection, talked about special projects that never came to light, like the i8 ALPINA. Great guy, great company, only respect from us!
Well I look at it a bit more different, Alpina is more BMW, then let’s say AC Schnizter. The key thing I read a while ago was that Alpina is partially assembled in BMW, plus all Alpina models can be service at BMW. Basically, Alpina is BMW premium M verses their M badge which is catered for sports, and because of that, Alpina can’t tune the engines in extreme, it can’t really go above BMW, because of their close relationship privilege they enjoy. Other tuners like AC, their products cannotbe service at BMW, that’s why Alpina wins hands down