1980 BMW 6-Series

ALPINA B7S Coupe

6 - Cyl.

Manual

WBEAC3105C5593064

Gasoline

The description of this car comes from my webpage, www.vintageandsportscar.com. The direct link to the car is here... http://web.me.com/lromanosky/ALPINA/1982_BMW_Alpina_B7S_Turbo.html    On the webpage I made for the car there is an in-depth description of Alpina and their famous 5 and 6 series turbocharged cars of the 80's.  With RUF and AMG, Alpina made some of the most desirable cars of the 80's. They were manufactures in there own right, and while the starting point was a BMW, the cars were comprehensively re-engineered to offer far greater performance, with no loss of reliability, than the stock machines.  A RUF, AMG or Alpina was often twice as expensive as the donor car.  The Alpina B7S Turbo Coupe is most powerful (330hp), the fastest (0-100km/hr in 5.8 sec and 280km/hr top speed), and the rarest of all the Alpina 80's cars.  Very few Alpina cars ever made it to North America, as they had to be federalized like the Porsche Turbos and Ferrari Boxers.   Alpina made a special edition of their 5 and 6 series cars in 1982, offering 60 B7S Sedans in Alpina Blue with a Blue Cloth/Leather interior and 30 B7S Turbo Coupes, all in Alpina dark green metallic with a green tartan cloth/leather interior.   There were only a few cars that differed from the B7S colours-a pair of B7S, a coupe an sedan were painted in Anthracite Grey for members of the Quant family, and there is this car which kept the Alpina green, but had a very special interior in full leather with the top of the line Recaro Ortho C seats. On the webpage there are links to every scrap of information on Alpina and the B7S that I could find including the factory invoice for the car, copies of Alpina brochures, specifications, magazine articles etc. Also I have posted 7 videos on youtube describing the car and the restoration. http://www.youtube.com/user/slrroman I tried to be as informative as possible: This Alpina B7S is the 14th out of the 30 unit production run. It has one of the last VIN’s, #5593064, from the range #5593043 to #5593072. It has been authenticated by Alpina, who have provided the factory invoice, and it is on the Alpina Register (www.alpina-archive.com). It is a numbers matching car, and has all of its original mechanical components. This #14 Alpina B7S has a full leather interior with Recaro “C” Orthopedic seats in this car from the factory and documented on the Alpina Build Sheet. It is the only known example of a B7S fitted with full leather or the Recaro C’s. The standard interior of the 30 B7S Coupe seats are a simpler Recaro Design, with green plaid cloth inserts, for both front and rear. These Recaros were the top-of-the-line and cost approximately $1,000 each (in cloth) in 1982. The full Leather interior with the Recaro Seats probably added about $4,000 to the total price of this car when new (approximately 10% as the car would have cost about $45,000 before importation). Location: Calgary, Canada Mileage: 82,xxx miles VIN: WBEAC3105C5593064 Engine Stamping: 5593064 +B7S+ Body Number (Stamping on cowl where VIN’s were on Euro cars) # 29432001 Colour (Sonderlackierung): Alpina Dark Green Metallic (Dunkelgrun) Interior: Factory Full Leather with Recaro Idealseat C BMW Production Month: 03/83 Alpina Completion Date: 06/82 Factory Invoice Date: June 28, 1982 Production date of B7S Turbos 05/82-09/82 # B7S Turbos produced: 30 # of this B7S: #14 Importer; Dietel Enterprises, Mission Viejo California HISTORY This Alpina was imported by Dietel Enterprises of Mission Veijo, CA (LA area) for a US Navy Captain who lived in the LA area.  It was subsequently sold to L. Allison, the Publisher of Night Ridder Newspapers, in the San Francisco Bay area, in approximately 1988. The first service record that I have lists the mileage of the car at 52,000 miles in May 1992.  The car received significant refurbishment in 1995, at 67,000mi, shortly before it was sold to the third owner. Mr. Allison relates in a pre-purchase letter that $17,000 was recently spent on the car: -Turbo (K27) and high Performance Muffler and catalytic converter $4,500 -Paint (same materials as Rolls and Mercedes) $2,500 -Sunroof motor and gears $1,000 -Alpina Fuel System Repair $2,000 (Replacement of some Pierburg Fuel Injection components with new replacement items) -Reinforce body underside, replace shocks $6,000 (the rear moncoque was strengthened in the area where the differential was mounted. A plate was welded in the trunk area that spanned the distance between the wheel wells and stiffened the rear structure. The Long range fuel tank was removed during this process, and not refitted-presumably because they were difficult to fill, and generally a fussy affair.) -Clutch $1,000  In Nov 1995 it was then sold to a business associate of Allison’s, who did consulting work for the company, and was a Calgary resident. He purchased the car with 69,000miles. The car stayed in California for several more years and came up to Canada in approximately 1998 with about 75,000mi. I purchased the car in October 2010 with 82,000mi. The car has had the benefit of expert care from Alpina specialists Exclusive Motors of Laguna Hills, CA and H&B (Hardy & Beck) of Berkeley CA. In Canada it was serviced at Continental Imports. AS FOUND (IN OCT 2010) CONDITION The car was consigned to a dealer in Calgary in 2010; When I found the car it was in generally sound condition, though there were a couple of rust spots that were starting, and the weather stripping on the exterior of the car was starting to dry out; Some of the brightwork was beginning to show its age with micro bubbling and small dents etc. The head and tail lights were faded as was much of the black trim and bumpers. There were the usual door dings and stone chips associated with 15 years of use since the car was given its last repaint in the mid-90’s. There was a trace of micro-bubbling at the base of the windscreen (in a very small area) and the windscreen seal was starting to dis-colour from dryness; The side window seals were starting to crack, and the passenger window had difficulty sealing correctly leading to wind noise. There was a rust bubble beneath the left tail light about 1cm square; There were paint chips on the inside lip of the wheel arches where bare metal is exposed and needs refinishing; There were some minor body pieces which have gone missing: a clip for the chrome left side glass surround, the interior light in front of the sunroof, a plug on the right rear interior side panel; Some of the paint on the Alpina and B7S badges has worn off; The cover for on the cowl for the Ventilation has started to discolour at the edges where is was exposed through the vent openings in the bonnet. It would appear that the car received several car stereos over its lifetime, as well as an alarm and remote entry. Some of this work was done well, and some... not so much. It appears an effort was made to install the largest stereo possible in the car, which included a very large sub-woofer under the rear passenger shelf, 4 large speakers installed in the rear seat footwell, and additional speakers installed in front doors, and rear side panels.  At some point, possibly during the re-spray of the early 90’s the car lost it’s correct ‘full-width’ rear spoiler, and a regular BMW M spoiler was installed-they are similar, but the Alpina version extends several inches wider overhanging the trunk, while the M which ends at the trunk. The car lost it’s deep Alpina front spoiler, though the mounting holes are still evident. These cars had the gold Alpina “Deco” kit which was an elaborate pinstriping kit, and this was not re-applied after the the re-spray.  RESTORATION Starting in Dec 2010, I undertook a cosmetic restoration on the car with receipts of more than $25,000 in total. The work was completed in May 2011. The Major areas addressed were: 1) New exterior paint, glass, lights, rubber and trim 2) Removal of DOT mandated bumper reinforcement and lighting 3) Reconstruction of the rear bulkhead and trunk area to repair stereo installation 4) Removal of aftermarket stereo, alarm and radar detector and all wiring. 5) Installation of NOS Blaupunkt Berlin Stereo and Speakers. The body was completely disassembled and all the trim, lights, bumpers, glass etc was removed. All corrosion spots were cut out and new metal was welded in and leaded. There is no filler in the body of the car. Holes that were cut into the bodywork to install side marker lights were filled and leaded. A new parcel shelf was sourced from a donor 6 series, and a section was cut to fit and welded in place. The correct NOS BMW rear parcel shelf cover, with speaker pods is installed. With the interior out of the car, all the wiring and components were stripped out, and any holes were welded up. A rubber matting was sprayed over the metal bulkhead to reduce noise and vibration, to replicate the function of the factory stick-on rubber matting.  The bodyshell of the car was given a high quality repaint at a cost of $8,400 at Continental Auto Body. This was just paint and not assembly or disassembly. An NOS Blaupunkt Berlin IQR 83 was sourced; and an incredible find, in its original box, with NOS speakers and an NOS Equalizer-this stereo would fetch $3k-$4k on its own). The IQR 83 came out in 1982 so it suits the vehicle perfectly-in the 80’s many of the very high end tuned German cars had both the Recaro C Ortho seats and the Blaupunkt Berlin stereos, both representing the top-of-the-line products from both manufacturers. The NOS Blaupunkt Berlin is installed with an NOS Blaupunkt Equalizer and NOS Blaupunkt speakers. A set of used rear speaker pods was sourced and refurbished and modified to accept large 90w Blaupunkt speakers that sit atop the pods in the rear parcel shelf. An alternative arrangement is provided with NOS speaker pods, with NOS Blaupunkt 6”x9” speakers mounted underneath the pods as per standard BMW fitament. There appears to be some variation in the audio equipment in each of the 30 B7S Turbo Coupes. There is at least one B7S that received a Fisher Head Unit with Pioneer speakers mounted atop the speaker pods.The 07/78 Road and Track article on the Hardy &  Beck imported 6 Series lists the installation of a Blaupunkt Berlin for a price of approx $2,000. With the bodyshell painted and the Blaupunkt installed, the car was reassembled with the new BMW and Alpina parts These parts included: -all new head light, tail light and indicator lighting, and gaskets. -new BMW ‘Kidneys’ and light grilles. -new front windscreen. -new front and rear window seals and trim. -new side window brightwork. -new front and rear bumper chrome and rubber. -new door rubber seals (door and body). -new side mouldings. -new BMW badges -NOS rear Alpina Spoiler -NOS front Alpina Spoiler -new hardware, fasteners, and clips. -new Coco floor mats (not installed) -NOS Alpina Steering wheel and shift knob (not installed) -Reproduction Alpina Deko Kit With the car painted and assembled, the car was given back to Continental to address some fit issues with window sealing and door closure and to ‘fine tune’ the completed project. The finishing touch was to have the Deko kit installed. Approximatly $10,000 of new parts was purchased for the vehicle. Paint, bodywork, disassembly and assembly added approximatley $12,000, and the Stereo and installation added $3,000... There are a couple thousand dollars of Misc. costs and I have put about 200 hours into the car myself which isn’t reflected in the cost. SUMMARY This Alpina BMW is a unique car. It is the only example of the B7S Turbo fitted with a full leather interior, and the only example fitted with the top-of-the-line Recaro Ortho seats. This is the only B7S that was sold new into North America, and to the collected wisdom of the Alpina community, it is still the only B7S on this continent. Apart from the Alpina race cars, it is arguably the rarest and most collectible of all the Alpina BMW’s.  It has unquestioned provenance, matching numbers and Alpina authentication. Being a California car for most of its life, and given a comprehensive body restoration, it is completely dry and rust free.; It has had a fresh cosmetic restoration done to a very high standard. Mechanically the car was given signifiant upgrades in the mid-90’s at a cost of $17,000. It has just had another $25,000 spent on cosmetics. The car runs and drives perfectly. The Pierburg injection system functions properly and shows no signs of fuel leakage or any other problems. The car has run reliably for the last 10 years and 10,000 miles according to the previous owner, who has only needed to give the car normal servicing-It has done several long distance trips without fault. It remains a truly fast car today, and a very capable Grand Touring machine.  The Pierburg fuel injection system works perfectly and there is no sign of fuel leakage. The engine is very strong and runs with good oil pressure and oil/water temperature. It doesn’t use oil or have the tendency to discolour the oil. The car fires quickly and settles to a slightly uneven idle when cold, and settles to an even rpm when it warms. It revs freely and pulls hard, once the turbocharger reaches about 2500rpm. The adjustable wastegate doesn’t stick and will bleed off boost appropriately depending on the boost setting. The boost gauge shows from between .6 bar and 1 bar. Oil pressure when cold rises instantly to 5 bar and will settle to between 1 and 2 bar when hot. Normal driving sees between 4 and 5 bar. Oil temperature and coolant temperature never approach half way around the dial. The Differential temperature gauge flickers occasionally but never rises off the peg with the slow driving that I have done. The car is dry underneath and has no leaks. The gearbox and clutch function perfectly and there are no unusual noises from the gears, or bearings. The syncro’s work fine. The car tracks and brakes straight with authority. The suspension is free of sloppiness or squeaks or clunks.Turn in is very sharp and handling precise.  The car was put through the shop in the fall of 2010 and given a full service with all the fluids changed apart from the differential fluid which looked new. The boots on the ball joints show some evidence of slight cracking, and new balljoints (complete with suspension link) were ordered-but only one arrived. Since the cracking is minor, I will just include the part for future fitament. All the electrical items function correctly with the following exceptions: The fuel gauge stopped working after the car was put together and presumably something wasn't re-connected properly. The car is booked in for a final service before sale where this will be addressed. The compressor on the drivers side Recaro doesn’t function, and I have decided to live with it. The A/C has lost its charge of refridgerant-I never use A/C (we get about 3 hot days a year here) so have not bothered with a re-charge. There are two additional areas that a future owner may address; one is the installation of the long range fuel tank. This can be easily fabricated as it is a rectangular section steel tank (I have dimensions and photos) which can be easily fabricated by me or by the next owner. I purchased the correct trunk material to cover the tank.  The other area is the restoration of the dash which suffered from cracking in the California sun, and though repaired well, is showing signs of re-cracking in a few areas. One could either live with it as is (as I would do), or the dash can be removed and sent to a dashboard restoration company such as Just Dashes who charge $1,500 to re-manufacture it. Lawrence Romanosky Calgary, Canada Lromanosky@me.com 403-607-8625