Alpina E9 at Legends

Attachments

  • DSC04497.jpg
    DSC04497.jpg
    93.3 KB · Views: 224
  • DSC04492.jpg
    DSC04492.jpg
    93.4 KB · Views: 227
The Facebook pic is from O'fest right before Ben was asked if he had read the rules regarding judging. He said he hadn't, as professional restorers can only enter in the Display category, not Judged. A half hour later someone came up to the organizers and told them Ben wasn't a restorer. They showed this person Ben's website and the discussion was over. He has owned it for twenty years and recently completed its restoration. I didn't study the car but hood gaps appeared very large. He did earn first at Legends so it was very clean.
 
Question

I know Shanon already asked, but did anybody get more info on this car?

How did it start life a CSL, CS or CSI?

Anybody possibly see the Vin?

Thanks
 
It's a legitimate Superlightweight with plexiglas windows, etc. I'm pretty sure it's a real Alpina, but matching number motor is long gone. The same guy that did the paint/body on Rahal's Bat for me did Bens car.
 
Thanks for the answers guys, totally understand that nobody is completely sure.

By Super-lightweight Ron, do you mean one of the first 169 Carb CSLs or one of the few LHD CSLs Injection cars that had Lexan/plastic rear and side windows? As we all know, the later injection cars had differing degrees of "lightness", so I am guessing you mean an early Carb car........if so, thats great news, the more of these known about the better, these early carb cars are so important and as I have said before, when the market truly wakes up from its slumber - it has already started stretching - these early carb cars will be considered very important.

What I am looking at looks like glass rear windows to me in the pictures, but I could certainly be very wrong or maybe they have been changed to glass, not that unusual over the years.

Can I ask what makes you pretty sure its a real Alpina? No disrespect to the owner or anybody else, but there are very few real period Alpina CSLs. As I understand it, there were two different cars we can call Alpina CSLs, the cars that were delivered to Alpina before going to a customer and the cars that were fully converted by Alpina in period.

I suppose if somebody knows Mr Miller he can verify it one way or the other.
 
Nash, yes you are correct...it is an original carb car. I guess we all have nicknames for them, but I always call them superlightweights as they were all built the same. I had a series 2 CSL that was not a stand packet, or city package but they were all built with different options and much unlike the series 1 cars. Mine had a mechanical hood and trunk, for instance. I don't really know if/hoe Bens car is associated with Alpina, but can find out.
 
Value without matching numbers

Interesting info. While this car is über rare I'm wondering the impact that value has without matching numbers . It's too bad the original engine is long gone.
 
Nash said:
By super-lightweight Ron, do you mean one of the first 169 Carb CSLs or one of the few LHD CSLs Injection cars that had Lexan/plastic rear and side windows? As we all know, the later injection cars had differing degrees of "lightness", so I am guessing you mean an early Carb car........if so, thats great news, the more of these known about the better, these early carb cars are so important and as I have said before, when the market truly wakes up from its slumber - it has already started stretching - these early carb cars will be considered very important.

What I am looking at looks like glass rear windows to me in the pictures, but I could certainly be very wrong or maybe they have been changed to glass, not that unusual over the years.

Can I ask what makes you pretty sure its a real Alpina? No disrespect to the owner or anybody else, but there are very few real period Alpina CSLs. As I understand it, there were two different cars we can call Alpina CSLs, the cars that were delivered to Alpina before going to a customer and the cars that were fully converted by Alpina in period.

I suppose if somebody knows Mr Miller he can verify it one way or the other.
Click to expand...

Nash, thanks for your interest. My CSL, VIN 2275144, is as you said one of the few LHD injected CSLs with Lexan rear & side windows. I polished and reused the original rear windshield, in my effort to keep as many original parts on the car as I could during the restoration, but the sides were too scratched. So my polisher (who makes plexiglass canopies for WWII aircraft) made a new pair of side windows using my originals for a pattern. That's why you thought my side windows were glass, because they're so clear.

The car is a real Alpina, as it falls into the first of the two categories that you stated in your post, i.e. "cars that were delivered to Alpina before going to a customer". My BMW Group Classic Certificate shows this car being delivered to Burkard Bovensiepen at Buchloe two days after the date of manufacture on 11/14/72.

As a side note, I had the President of Alpina, Andreas Bovensiepen, who was in attendance at Oktoberfest where the Facebook photo at the beginning of this thread was taken, sign my Certificate next to his father's name, just for fun. He enjoyed seeing the car, and all the other Alpinas in attendance at the event, so much that he had all of them--including the 2 that he flew in from Buchloe just for the event--line up for a photo shoot afterwards. You can see a couple of these in Chris's excellent collection of event photos, shown in another thread about the Monterey weekend events.

Regards,
Ben
 
sister-cars

Ben,

Congrats to a very rare and nice non-city pack CSL. I can add that the sister-cars 2275143 and 2275142 both were also Golf from factory. It's true that very few injection LHD CSLs (non bat) were really light and without city-pack.

The sister car 2275143 was also light and without city-pack, delivered at the end of October 1972 to BMW in Bonn, Germany as most likely a special order. It's currently placed in a nearby garage.

Cheers
Henric
 
Last edited:
Hi Ben

Firstly congratulations on owning a truly awesome car.

Its really kind of you to clear up exactly what the car is and how it came about. The history of these cars needs this kind of clarity and honesty, they are now becoming valuable and the whole provenance and history thing in our section of the hobby needs improving.

Well done on the Plexiglass side windows, they do look like glass in the pictures, amazing!

All CSLs are great cars, but these very special Ultra-lightweights ( sorry Ron, I prefer Ultra) either the carb or the Injected models cars are what I consider the holy grail of the E9 hobby. I cannot begin to imagine how many are left because of the lack of protection they had when new and because so many were used by the race teams in the day.

I hope to get to see it one day.

Enjoy it, its beautiful.

Thank you again

Nash
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top