What Alpina did next: How Bovensiepen will keep building ultimate BMWs

The useful part

BMW has taken control of Alpina, so what's next for the family that established the name? Andreas Bovensiepen sweeps into a deserted canteen at the Salzburgring, six minutes late for our interview. I'd planned to hit him with some pithy enquiry as to the emotional toll of flogging the company his father Burkard founded, but he triggers a vibe-shift.

How it works

• He reports, with some relish, that the Bovensiepen Zagato he's just leapt out of nailed 265kph on the back straight.
• This makes it as quick as the slick-shod B6 GT3 they used to hammer here at Alpina events, he continues almost to himself, smiling as he pulls out a chair.
• Disarming enthusiasm for the product: it affirms the notion that 63-year-old Andreas and his brother Florian were never going to take the money and slip off to yachts in the Med.
• The details won't be made public, but one assumes selling Alpina to BMW, in a deal that came to fruition last year, made both men rich.
• That venture is Bovensiepen Automobile, and it has an uncannily familiar feel.

Details worth keeping

Certainly it was enough to fully capitalise the new venture.