You’ll remember Alpina as the ever so slightly eccentric BMW tuners, bought out by the Munich mothership in 2022. Well, they’re back, using their family name but otherwise fully on song - once again offering modified BMWs with uprated power and sharper handling that you never knew you needed until now. BMW M5 estate not fast enough? The Bovensiepen 05 GT is for you. We’d like one too, and not just because of its exclusivity.
Bovensiepen reckon they have the capacity at their HQ - Buchloe in Austria where previously they made Alpinas - to make just 100 of these superfast load-luggers each year, so you’re unlikely to see another, the more so because of the almost limitless options offered to the interior. Lavalina leather, hand-stitched to your specified colourway? Done. And naturally there’s a numbered plaque to each 05 GT produced.
Alpina’s watchword was subtlety and so it is with the 05 GT, Bovensiepen being run by the sons of Alpina founder Burkard Bovensiepen. Star designer Frank Stephenson - who styled the original BMW Mini and McLaren’s P1 - has toned down the aggression of the M5 Touring on which the 05 GT is based. Boy racer? No longer.
Front and rear bumper treatment is new, fresh side skirts are quietly effective, there’s a new rear spoiler, while four aluminium Akropovic tailpipes hint at the mighty performance of this very grown up supercar. There are naturally no BMW badges, replaced by Bovensiepen’s own roundel - plus that long word itself spelt out on the new deep front spoiler.
Under the bonnet BMW's 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 is retuned so that the 05 GT’s power is up from the M5’s hardly insubstantial 718 bhp to a rocketing 790 bhp. Just enough then for a fast big shop at the supermarket. Suspension changes include new Eibach springs and retuned dampers, while the 05 GT runs on 21-inch forged alloys, with more than a hint of Alpina’s famed turbo-fan wheels, and cheekily incorporating 20 spokes, just as Alpina did. Each detail invites closer inspection. That is the joy of what amounts to a custom version of a BMW.
This is a car that aches desirability. You’d certainly need nothing else in your garage because of course the 05 GT can function as an everyday estate, for everything from ski trips to those important visits to the local dump. Even if the custom load bay may be more suited to carrying necessities for an extravagant picnic at the end of an autobahn.
The base M5 Touring is already a far from cheap car, retailing at around £110,000. Bovensiepen’s 05 GT will set you back £171,000, before you’ve decided on those luscious custom interior options. Is it worth the extra £61,000 over the already highly capable base car? It’s a matter of heritage, individuality and taste. The 05 GT is a unique take on high performance. Dinner in Berlin this evening? We’re happy to join you for the ride.
