Benjamin M. Monroe Blog: 1981 ALPINA B7 Turbo could be your dose of classic BMW

Friday, August 10, 2018

1981 ALPINA B7 Turbo could be your dose of classic BMW

BMW enthusiasts often refer to older Bimmers when they talk about the brand’s signature handling and tactile feedback. Some enthusiasts are so die-hard old-school that they don’t want to even look at anything after the E30 3 Series. While that’s a bit extreme, there is merit to the older-is-better idea when it comes to BMWs. There’s a specific charm that older Bimmers have that new ones fail to match. Especially the older 5 Series models, which are just so boxy and so awesome. Even better still, older ALPINA-tuned BMW 5 Series’. Specifically, this 1981 ALPINA B7 Turbo, which has just hit Bring-A-Trailer.

Unlike today, the “ALPINA B7” nameplate actually referred to a 5 Series. The first B7 was developed on the E12 BMW 5 Series chassis, more specifically it started out life as a 528i. For B7-duty, the BMW 528i was upgraded to sport a 3.0 liter turbocharged inline-six engine, which was incredibly cool for its day. It made 300 hp and 340 lb-ft of torque and was mated to a five-speed dogleg gearbox. How awesome is that? With that much power, and a lightweight body and chassis (compared to today), the ALPINA B7 Turbo was able to sprint to 60 mph in a claimed 6.5 seconds. Sure, a modern day VW GTI would blow the original B7’s doors off but that’s still plenty fast to be fun.

Plus, it’s just damn cool. Just look at this car. Painted in Sapphire Blue Metallic, which is actually more like a slightly blueish silver, with the classic ALPINA livery, this B7 looks positively badass. Inside, it gets Scheel-Mann seats upholstered with ALPINA’s signature stripes and black leather throughout the rest of the cabin. Wood trim and a wood shift lever break up the black look a bit and there’s the classic ALPINA plaque that shows the production number of the car. It even gets cool little dash-mounted auxiliary gauges.

This specific car seems to be in really good running condition, with only some very minor scratches and just 144k km (90k miles) on the odometer, barely anything for its age. Right now, at the time of writing this, the current bid is up to $7,150 and there are still seven days on the bid. We expect it to go up dramatically, as this is a very cool, very rare car that any BMW enthusiast/collector would love to have.