BMW Will Offer Period-Correct ALPINA Colors to Customers

We rendered the Vision BMW ALPINA in two of the brand’s most historically significant colors — ALPINA Blue and ALPINA Green — and the results are worth talking about. Both shades have been on road cars since the 1970s, worn by B7 Turbos, E28 B9 3.5s, and competition cars that raced under the ALPINA banner long before BMW owned the name. BMW, for its part, has also developed a third color for the Vision: a new shade inspired by alpine mist, with no direct predecessor in the ALPINA catalog.

Adrian Van Hooydonk, BMW Group Head of Design, confirmed though that both historic blue and green colors will be available to customers on the production model, and that if you want the period-correct shade rather than a modern interpretation, BMW will oblige.

The Vision For The Brand

The Vision BMW ALPINA is a concept that previews where BMW intends to take the ALPINA nameplate following its full acquisition of the brand. ALPINA had operated as an independent tuner and coachbuilder since the 1960s, building cars at its Buchloe facility that BMW sold through its dealer network under special regulatory status. When BMW completed its acquisition, the future of the brand as a standalone entity became unclear. The Vision answers part of that question: ALPINA is not going away, but it will exist as a distinct model line within BMW rather than as a separate company producing its own cars.

The concept itself is a large, low-slung grand tourer. The proportions favor the long-distance driving ALPINA has always done better than M GmbH — a car you could take from Munich to Monaco without arriving angry. The design incorporates ALPINA’s traditional pinstripe detailing along the lower body and around the wheels, which on production ALPINA cars has always been applied by hand. Whether that practice survives into a BMW-run production model is an open question.

ALPINA Blue and Green: The Colors That Started Everything

ALPINA Blue is arguably the original ALPINA signature color. The shade emerged in the early years of ALPINA’s road car production and became strongly associated with the brand through the 1970s and 1980s, when it appeared on some of the fastest cars on German roads. The B7 Turbo wore it. So did the B6 2.8 and several competition-spec cars that raced under the ALPINA banner.

The specific hue has drifted slightly over the decades — the blues of the 1970s had a warmer, slightly more saturated character than later interpretations. When Van Hooydonk says customers can request a period-correct shade, he is acknowledging that gap. The Vision render uses a cooler, more modern blue with depth that reads differently in direct sun versus shade. It works well on the concept’s long flanks, giving the car a formality that brighter blues would undercut.

ALPINA Green has always been the less expected of the two colors. Fewer cars left Buchloe wearing it, which makes the examples that did something of a rarity today. The shade sits in that range between British Racing Green and a darker sage, avoiding both the corporate look of modern dark greens and the retro affectation of a reproduction BRG.

On the Vision, it is the more striking of the two renders. The concept’s surfaces catch the color differently depending on the angle — darker in the creases, richer on the flat panels. It also pairs well with the chrome-finish ALPINA wheels the concept wears, where ALPINA Blue reads as the safer, more obviously correct choice.

A New Color: Inspired By Alpine Mist

The official Vision BMW ALPINA color is the most interesting one to think about, because it is the only one BMW actually had to invent. Alpine mist as a reference point is apt — it describes a color that sits somewhere between a cool grey and a very pale green, the kind of shade you actually see on an overcast morning in the Alps when the light is flat and the snow line starts high.

On the Vision ALPINA’s long, low surfaces, that color reads well. The concept’s body has enough complexity — the creases, the proportions, the ALPINA detailing — that a quieter color lets the form do the work. The new shade also connects to ALPINA’s general sensibility without copying any specific historical paint. ALPINA customers have always skewed toward understatement relative to M buyers. A color that references a landscape rather than a racing heritage fits that.

Van Hooydonk also confirmed that there will be an ALPINA Individual-type of program where the imagination of the customer is the limit. So we expect to see some amazing color choices when future BMW ALPINAs arrive, starting with the new 7 Series/B7 next year.