Typical Saturday in Denver. Run around Denver doing errands when the unexpected happens. A blue metallic Alpina B12 5.0 flys by us with Swedish license plates.
Wiping away my initial disbelief, we follow the car. It has the markings/badges indicating a B12 5.0. The car pulls into a parking lot and we pull up alongside and ask the driver is that REALLY an Alpina B12 5.0? "Well, yes it is; it's Number 1!" says the proud driver. The build plate shows Nbr 1 and the VIN matches the BMW chassis number from the BMW 8 Series Inventory Project.
Long story short: moved to Denver, Colorado USA from Sweden and brought the car along. The owner shared with me its impressive history, including the fact this car was featured in many early marketing materials (prospekts).
Here are some pix from my cell phone:
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For you newbies, here's a quick background: All Alpina B12 5.0's were based on the M70 850iA/CiA. Alpina had a special arrangement with BMW to specially prepare the cars along Dingofling and Garching assembly lines before sending the cars to Alpina for final manufacturing. Only 97 B12 5.0's were built. 44 of the 97 built came in 7 different shades of blue, including (click on link to see color swatch):
- MAURITIUSBLAU METALLIC (287)
- BLAU METALLIC (FE 86-5489)
- MACAOBLAU METALLIC (250)
- CIRRUSBLAU METALLIC (189)
- GLETSCHERBLAU METALLIC (280)
- NACHTBLAU METALLIC (FE 68-51AX) (known as Midnight Blue)
- ORIENTBLAU METALLIC (317)
Production Details:
- BMW build date: 7-May-1990
- BMW Exterior Color: Mauritius Blue (code 287)
- BMW Interior Color: Silbergrau Leder (legacy code: 0351, new code M5SL)
- Alpina build date: July 1990 (exact date TBD)
- 1st Alpina B12 5.0 built out of 97 produced 1990-94
Enjoy your weekend.
Jud
