ALPINA LUXURY BMWs With Maximum Horsepower | Full Documentary

that's no normal bmw this seven series model flies the alpena flag this vehicle manufacturer from southern germany is one of the most exclusive automotive brands in the world much of the tremendous power boost is already achieved at the bmw plants and the final assembly ultimately occurs at the factory in the algoy a power symbiosis where the two horsepower blacksmiths both benefit bmw and alpena it's a relationship that's already 55 years old established in the 1960s the family business still builds luxury cars in small cities to this day bavarian luxury cars with the driving dynamics of super sports cars distinctive aerodynamics packages high performance engines powerful brake systems 100 modified parts make series production models into exclusive racing machines many of alpina's innovative developments were born on the racetrack and first road tested by motorsport legends it wasn't long before we agreed that i'd drive for him i didn't get paid much let's just put it that way under our penis leadership we want great racism [Music] when an alpena m3e30 dtm with more than 300 horsepower flies over the asphalt like that one person isn't far away the ex-race driver andy bolfenzeben he knows the touring car from 1988 like the back of his hand no abs no power steering no brake booster but the first of its kind with a metal catalytic converter [Music] beautiful analog instruments 70 degree water temperature and 5 bar oil pressure 90 degree engine oil oil pressure five bar when andy isn't burning up the asphalt he is andreas bovenzee together with his father borchat and brother florian he manages the luxury race car maker he works at the headquarters of the world-renowned brand in buchler bavaria here some 300 employees take bmw's best series production vehicles to the next level after more than 55 years of building cars at this 25 000 square meter facility it's starting to run out of room [Music] what you see here is a typical medium-sized company every so often a new building was added or an old building was torn down and then a taller one was built in its place and it just kept growing like that even if many car fans think of the company with the carburetor and crankshaft and its emblem as a luxury tuner alpina is actually a genuine automobile manufacturer starting from the most powerful bmws the buchulua based team create their own models alpina has been officially registered as a manufacturer at the german federal motor vehicle agency since 1983. [Music] the current flagship is the b7 a luxury touring car with the power of a sports car as heavy as a tank and as fast as a porsche the heart of the b7 is a twin turbo v8 engine with a 4.4 liter displacement and 608 horsepower with 800 newton meters of torque the 5 meter long and more than 2 ton vehicle accelerates from zero to one hundred kilometers per hour in 3.6 seconds this luxury touring car tops out at a breakneck speed of 330 kilometers per hour a buyer has to shell out between 150 000 and 200 000 euros for the luxury alpena [Music] munich here in the main bmw plant is where the b7 is born in the body there's no discernible difference yet from its brother the series production bmw it's on the assembly line that the modification starts here the assemblers mount the parts specially developed by alpena engine cooling package suspension wheels brake system about 100 components you won't find on the series production model one out of every thousand cars built here is an alpena [Music] after that the vehicles go to the alpena factory trucks bring them 170 kilometers to buchloe all the add-on features that cannot be installed in the precisely synchronized workflow of the bmw assembly line are carried out and completed here often by hand before the installation continues each car first gets a new chassis number in the workshop every alpena except for the cars for the us market gets its own chassis number from us so the bmw chassis number gets crossed out and our number is added in its place the alpena modifications made to the bmw series production car are so radical that the result is practically a whole new automobile and that's the reason for the luxury car's new number the last three numbers here always stand for the current sequential model it's the piece number this one is basically the 657th card the new number is then also added to the vehicle's documentation [Music] now the workshop crew starts the conversion to a b7 touring car most of the components developed by alpena such as the engine the radiator the suspension the wheels and the brake system have already been installed in the car on the bmw assembly line what remains are the front and rear spoilers the air ducts the lettering and the customized interior the first work site here is the front apron the new spoiler is already waiting in line later on this component will supply additional fresh air to the transmission oil cooler [Music] then we're to the point where the spoiler can be glued in place one colleague applies assembly adhesive along the edge of the spoiler lip by hand two assemblers fit the company's own aerodynamic part into position they use adhesive tape to attach the new spoiler lip to the front now the special adhesive must cure for several hours after which the series production bumper and the new spoiler are permanently bonded together [Music] the new air ducts bundle the airstream in a way that keeps the luxury liner's radiator and brakes from overheating it took the men a full hour to complete the facelift a complex work step like mounting the front lip is too complicated to integrate into the series production workflow at the factory in terms of handling the alpena front spoiler would be too complex for the workflow at the factory it would take too long but at our facilities it's really a relatively easy procedure to add the part on at the end stefan marsgreiter is vehicle project development manager and therefore the link between alpena and buchuloa and the bmw plants in germany and america he has a continuous overview of more than a hundred components and makes sure everything is always at the right place at the right time [Music] the plants have very complex systems that must be carefully managed who brings the part to the assembly line how is it installed there how is it fastened in place which inspections must be performed what are the logistics which label must be applied to the component in order to get it to the right place on the assembly line at the right time even the smallest change as with this light strip can cause expensive chain reactions special non-standard lettering has been added to the interface of the lens [Music] at first it looks easy but from a manufacturing perspective it's very complex because this is a lamp holder that must be pressed in and then welded to this component the glue might diffuse and soil the lens there are numerous inspections and it's a lot of effort for such small lettering alpina is also the supplier for its own parts which will then be installed at the german or american bmw plant a logistical challenge even one small missing screw might bring a 100 meter long assembly line to a halt you get a sense of this responsibility when you enter the fabrication hall in buffalo a huge quantity of sub-assemblies and individual parts are stored here in this 1200 square meter facility [Music] to avoid delays on the bmw assembly line in some cases the employees in buchloa build complete assemblies in advance here is the imposing b7 radiator package this part is several times larger than the series production module and that's why it's also delivered to the assembly line in its own rack [Music] at first glance this container looks just like a bmw rack but you can already see that it has alpena marked on it the reason is that our cooling packages have a somewhat larger sweep here you see a pre-fabricated radiator it doesn't fit in the normal rack and that's why this component here was specifically modified for us so we can fabricate our parts here and how long will this stock last here we have about one month of production everything together would be one month production yeah these two employees are packaging car sets for the usa all the components for a complete alpena modification go into the crates unlike germany a few vehicles for the u.s market undergo final assembly directly in the american bmw plant so there are owner's manuals here extra components also emblems for the floor mats which stuff to be applied radiator air ducts then there's also the underbody panels that we also install what you don't see here are also our aerodynamic components for the rear on the front right down to the key fob and the alpena lettering everything here is pre-assembled perfectly packaged and inspected for quality with data matrix code so that it can be properly scanned in and confirmed that the car also corresponds to the condition that it should use every month 50 such car sets leave the fabrication hall and go overseas in shipping containers [Music] the highly secured development center has been well hidden at the back of the company grounds since 2006 the gangway connects five engine test stands and one all-wheel drive exhaust roller dynamometer test bench in order to be registered in a country each car must pass a very precise pollution test an xb7 has been acclimating in the conditioning hall for 24 hours its components are all at the same temperature now a technician prepares the suv for a cold start on the roller according to law the engine is not permitted to run before the test that's why the 2.6 ton race car is delivered to the windowless hull on an electric forklift the hermetically sealed test stand chamber is climate controlled that means all cars tested here can even provide the documentation required to register in a desert nation right in the middle of germany to keep it from flying off the roller the technician anchors this suv to a sled in a moment it will reach speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour standing still that is but nothing can be left to chance an extraction system connects the exhaust pipes to the measurement station the discharged exhaust gas is collected filtered and analyzed just now the person in charge of the exhaust test stand jan toinesen is about to put the xb7 through an rde test because that's this real driving emission now this is the real driving submission test in other words we check the emissions characteristics under simulated street conditions for the simple reason that it's extremely difficult to take reproducible measurements on the road when you're looking for any sort of anomaly and so we transfer the so-called street cycles to the exhaust roller just to ensure reproducibility the profile for the test is loaded today it's over german roadways the colleague behind the wheel is looking forward to taking a spin on the roller the suv gradually comes up to speed the monitor in front of the windshield displays a course made up of a series of acceleration and braking maneuvers i have to follow the red line exactly here left and right the yellow lines those are the tolerance lines if i cross over them i have a driving error and i do all this now just with the gas pedal and the brakes i don't have to shift gears of course because we have an automatic transmission giving it gas and braking for 30 minutes here on the test stand maku's float has already driven all over the world the system can run a simulation specifically tailored for each country and if he's lucky he'll drive the next car through australia for an hour while the driver tries to stay between the yellow lines the measurement station collects data on carbon dioxide and all other volatile emissions a half hour later the test is over and the xb7 has come one step closer to obtaining its registration in germany while standing still a few meters away from the exhaust roller florian zatzka puts one of the five engine test stands into operation the schedule calls for a tortuous endurance run over several days a modified twin turbo v8 engine has been securely anchored to the test stand newly developed parts have been installed in the engine and now they have to undergo some serious stress tests sensors at up to 100 measurement points monitor the patient's vital signs as the most important point here is actually our brake in fact it can both break the engine and also in this case drive it that means we can also simulate race track conditions roadway conditions that sort of thing basically everything you can imagine the test chamber is under constant vacuum to prevent exhaust gases from leaking out the endurance test starts the v8 is quickly accelerated to high speeds between full throttle and full braking the engine will experience a complete lifetime over the course of the next several days the test engine operates at speeds of between 30 and 250 kilometers per hour while the test stand break simulates several levels of resistance the twin turbo will be subjected to this torture for 250 hours covering the equivalent of about 40 000 kilometers that corresponds to 200 000 kilometers out on the road while deafening acceleration and deceleration pervades in the test chamber the engineers monitor the system on the screen among dozens of parameters concerning pressure speed and power they pay particular attention to one value with today's engines first of all the most important point is generally the exhaust temperature this is actually the benchmark that you're trying to achieve in the end it's about 950 to 980 degrees celsius in four to five of these grueling endurance tests per year the alpena engine developers test their parts prototypes and advanced developments when they withstand the punishment they go into serious production a few meters further along in the workshop the engine specialists remove the v8 from the test stand they strip it down to the last screw cylinder head crankshaft valve control system everything comes out until in the end only the naked engine block remains the endurance runners 40 000 kilometer trip in the test chamber has hardly left a trace when you look closely now you see that everything is actually perfectly visible here the points in between are all bright that means neither has anything suffered any abrasion here nor have any leaks developed at that point the men of the engine department are on the lookout for cracks leaks or other damage their main focus is on the heavily stressed cylinders that's why there's a compression measurement now the mechanic determines the cylinder volume in order to calculate whether the compression ratio has changed after the endurance test to do so he fills a graduated cylinder with benzene the compression ratio to be measured is the ratio between the largest cylinder volume and the smallest one the combustion chamber of the first cylinder is measured to do so the mechanic pours in benzene until no air is left under the cover the graduated cylinder indicates 71 milliliters after all eight cylinders and the cylinder head have been measured it's clear this engine's compression ratio has not changed but what about the pistons have they held up well under the torture they transmit the force of the explosion in the cylinder to the crankshaft all eight pistons will be extracted from the crank case the important thing with the pistons are these running surfaces you can see here that there are no anomalies whatsoever in other words no marks the other important point is in the area between these rings whether carbon deposits have formed an oil carbon that can cause this piston ring here to stick when that happens it will pretty rapidly lead to engine failure and finally the five five-bearing crankshaft is also removed from the engine block not only is it the most important power transmission element in every gasoline and diesel engine but it's also part of the alpena logo i can't hear people kind of faster you can find no signs of wear whatsoever here at first all pressures all temperatures all running conditions that you had here during the endurance run were actually really optimal engine work was always the specialty of the small series manufacturer from bavaria the brand name alpina would appear only on typewriters today had the company's founder boycott bolvinseat born in 1936 not been so infatuated with fast cars [Music] i was a car lover even as a young boy and by the time i was 14 i could already drive quite well i was stopped several times for driving without a license and they threatened me told me i'd never get a driver's license as long as i live and then of course i got one when i turned 18. the driving instructor needed only three sessions to exercise a few of my bad habits and then it was in the bag it was soon clear that the young boycott wouldn't be taking over his father's alpena typewriter factory instead he started to beef up bmw engines in a small building nearby [Music] we had a really small department in a shack just outside the factory during postwar germany's economic boom many people wanted to drive the chic bmw 1500 and the event of burkhard bovenseetm was also one of them [Music] it had a very modern engine and an engine compartment with quite a lot of room one lonely little carburetor so i thought to myself there's plenty of room there to install a twin carburetor system so each cylinder has its own carburetor that first alpena system with veva twin carburetors raises the bmw 1500 from 80 to 90 horsepower and it cost a whopping 980 deutsche marks it makes the first alpina and the mercedes chaser and burkhard bovenzieten a young entrepreneur then my father went out and placed that first letter-sized sheet of paper for the alpena carburetor system under the windshield wiper of over 100 bmw 1500 drivers and brought in the first 100 alpena customers a handful of mechanics in a shack have meanwhile developed into a large company that is proud of its family roots in any case andreas borden didn't have to go through any major relocation it was always interesting right from the start that our family also lived here and that i grew up here back then the children had yet to imagine their future as vehicle manufacturers [Music] my brother floyd was maybe eight at the time and i was 12. and then we rode laps on our motocross bikes back there in the garden in the summer and winter it was great fun no doubt about it and of course even though it was forbidden from time to time we drove some car another here in the courtyard my mother's car for example the grounds are spacious so of course you can get in some early driving practices [Applause] [Music] the first attempts at driving in the parents backyard eventually launched a racing career from 1986 to 2002 andy wolvenseten competed in formula three the european and world touring car championships the porsche carrera cup and in the 24 hours nurburgring where he was overall winner in 1988. [Music] awesome when the v8 engine with 575 horsepower response to the throttle and amazing sound yeah it really delivers this green mail car is a bmw alpena b6 gt3 from 2009 built to take on the entire racing world we had the idea to go up against ferrari lamborghini aston martin and a porsche 911 with a curb weight of 1.3 tons and a top speed of 285 kilometers per hour alpina took seventh place in the fia gt3 european championship it has great grip on the front axle and on the gas the car drifts a bit fast out of the corner paddle shift it changes gears within tenths of a second and then in 2011 the team had its greatest success in the hard-fought adayatze gt masters racing series the sky's the limit for the bright green v6 the two pilots alexandros margaritis and dino lunardi won four of the 16 races that season and were named driver champions in the german gt3 championship everyone gave it their best throughout the season and then we just celebrated and savored our victory it was really cool just to show how good we were once again and then in 2013 the company withdrew from racing but perhaps we'll see alpena back on the racecourse someday [Music] today andreas bovenzeeten's private course for his first driving attempts has become a booming enterprise 300 employees build some 2000 luxury cars per year the great strength of this buchua based company has always been in the development of new parts and components [Music] so in 2006 we decided to build a whole new development center with five test stands and an exhaust roller in this building alone more than 50 engineers work on the second floor we have nearly 100 engineers just doing research and development on the new cars that we want to market in the future [Music] on the upper floor of the development center an idea becomes reality engine suspension and body modifications are first created on the computer the engineer's digital plume was also the source of the striking front spoiler its function is to hold the super fast alpenas to the ground and cool their engines now here we have a comparison between the basic bmw on the right and our car on the left so you can see that we add the front spoiler to the lower part of the bmw body thereby generating additional cooling air surfaces and here we also made a very large air intake to be able to supply enough air to the transmission oil cooler behind it so bmw gives us the cad data about two years before our series production launch and that's when we start developing our body packages once the computer models are complete employees in the plastic workshop produce the first physical prototypes in the 21st century the 3d printer has long since become their tool of choice [Music] then we have printed parts made they are separate segments that we then assembled here are the separation lines everywhere they're glued together and then with a coating that's how we can already prepare an initial representation of the vehicle and go into the wind tunnel and make some initial tests to see if everything fits munich in bmw's own wind tunnel the alpena engineers push a b3 touring with new body parts onto the roller from the shape of the smoke trails the developers determine whether the air duct and new aerodynamics of the prototype work to fully test a new front spoiler the team spends up to three days in the wind tunnel and then it's back to buchlua with the test results [Music] the results from the wind tunnel are then incorporated into the next step to test the spoiler out on the road components are handmade from glass fiber reinforced plastic or grp for short these molds create new spoiler lips every two or three days [Music] then the test cars go to work eight months after the initial idea a new body part makes it into a street vehicle for the first time to keep the new development a secret the prototype parts are covered with adhesive camouflage film the film's confusing pattern makes it impossible to identify the shape structure and appearance of the development part too bad for the competition and for the magazine reporters trying to get a beat on the latest prototypes this test platform vehicle that's what the specialists call the test car is a series production bmw x7 the alpena engineers test their new parts on it when the prototypes pass the test then they go into series production today the team is completing the last measurement runs needed to obtain road use approval for germany the test driver installs his control station in the car it consists of a reinforced laptop mounting bracket that prevents it from breaking loose and flying around even during extreme braking maneuvers the computer uses a network cable to collect data from dozens of sensors in the engine and transmission this is a standard bmw modified to alpena standards here in the workshop [Music] hundreds of other sensors were installed in suspension engine cooling system etc every test vehicle is also equipped with two of these potentially life-saving buzzers no it's not a quiz show buzzer it's an emergency stop button when you're driving in the road and unintended braking or anything like that occurs then you can use it to shut down all systems instantaneously we have that both for the suspension regulation systems and for the engine the driver will pay particular attention to the different temperatures in the engine and the transmission the measurements show him how well the newly designed spoiler lift supports the suv's cooling system now it's time for the camouflaged car to leave the workshop and go out on the track but not just yet because it needs one more thing first a pit stop at the company's own gas pump the xb7 80 liter tank has to be full an unscheduled stop at a service station would be too risky for this top secret car so 30 000 liters of gasoline and 20 000 liters of diesel fuel are stored underground at the company's facilities andreas vipper is both a test driver and an engineer he knows how the new spoiler lip must perform for the vehicle to obtain the release for small series production the transmission could get stuck in which case it no longer opens the oil still circulating and the transmission gets too hot and then we immediately have an error message the new front spoiler supplies the alpena transmission oil cooler with additional air because the v8's drivetrain with its 800 newton meters of torque generates a tremendous amount of heat at average speeds everything looks good so far the transmission oil is at 36 degrees celsius that's still in the lower third of the range it's usually up around 90 to 95 degrees now we've got an open stretch let's increase the driving load now andreas vipper really steps on the gas and accelerates the xb7 to over 200 kilometers per hour the oil temperature rises quickly to 90 degrees you can see that the transmission temperature stays within range and there's a reasonable increase the new front spoiler should do more than just cool above all it must hold with an iron grip even when the speedometer hits 290 kilometers per hour prior to series production release a dozen test drivers punish every new alpena part over about 200 000 kilometers of road of north america southern europe and scandinavia by doing so the developers test the operation of their components in different climate zones and under all weather conditions the spoiler held up well today that much is clear after the highway driving here on the road the oil is now back to about 80 degrees celsius which is okay not too high not too low so it's well regulated and now nothing more stands in the way of obtaining road use approval for germany but then again the new xb7 will be built in the usa in spartanburg south carolina bmw operates its largest plant in the world on the 460 hectare grounds eleven thousand people produce fifteen hundred cars a day under bavarian management this is also where the suv from buchulua sees the light of day its life starts out as a basic x7 but then the special alpena parts are installed as a fully integrated part of series production every 500th car from spartanburg is then equipped as an xb7 the 1.8 meter high 2.6 ton vehicle is driven by a twin turbo v8 with a 4.4 liter displacement the specially equipped alpena variant has 621 horsepower 91 more than the standard configuration and the torque also gets an upgrade instead of 750 a full 800 newton meters accelerate this massive vehicle from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in 4.2 seconds the top speed remains the same at 290 kilometers per hour the new aerodynamics package consists of front and rear spoilers there's also a new exhaust system and the striking 20 spoke wheels anyone who wants the entire interior upholstered in leather then pays the top price of about 200 000 euros the xb7 is currently the largest and heaviest representative from buchloe nevertheless this road cruiser has alpena in its blood and the soul of a race car from the very beginning motorsport has played a key role for the company as you can clearly see from this bmw alpena 2800 cs from 1970 the owner of this jewel is marco kurgel it took him a long time to get this collector's car back into shape [Music] i discovered this car by chance in bochum germany in 1999 and then rebuilt it little by little before starting the restoration i first gathered up all the parts from practically all over the world after many years of hard work the six cylinder is back on the asphalt in mint condition the 1 230 kilogram coupe draws a full 300 horsepower from its engine's 3-liter displacement tremendous output in the 1970s and even today now you can see the result after many years of painstaking work everything has been authentically and faithfully rebuilt the enthusiasts only templates for this full restoration were his childhood memories and a long article from automotive spot that presented the car in detail in 1970 everything is original including this blue bucket [Music] this hobbit wouldn't be done well sometimes back then the alpena technicians came up with that on the fly so during endurance races the rain water didn't go into the trunk but collected in the bucket instead of unconventional but that's just the way things were back then in those days the cs entered races bearing a registration plate from kaufboylen germany back then the cars were registered otherwise they wouldn't have gotten past customs for eastern block races and afterwards they were unregistered again waited 10 years for the license plate but how much damage did the restoration do to his bank account [Music] well okay it's taken a couple of hundred thousand euros to finally get it into the condition you see here the value is far greater now of course because the racing history is unique the racing career of the two-time le mans winner began in the 1960s at the car manufacturer from buchloe the old photos from those days stir interesting memories where did boycott's hairpiece go said it fell into a sewage treatment plant i drove my first race 69 300 kilometers and then i had to get a license so i could drive in international races too and you had to finish in the top three three times in five races mountain races circuit races it didn't matter and my father had contacted mr burvins back then bulkhead already knew about me for my spectacular driving style and so the two of them agreed that now i would drive these three races with alpena the start was then on the hour bag with the 2002 where it ran extremely well and that was my debut with alpina in 1970 hans joachim stirred up the racing business with his bmw alpena 2002 the competitors saw only the rear of the porsche killer as the alpena was nicknamed back then [Music] today the retired race driver is all the more happy to take a little spin in a powerhouse from back then when he was still active [Music] here we go with the alpena bmw cs on bmw's test track and dingle thing [Music] it's like coming home with the car that we drove such great races in the 70s [Music] no power steering no brake booster those were the days along with hans joachim there were also young talents like nikki laura who earned their first golden spurs in team alpena when you think about how old this car is it runs perfectly [Music] the sound when downshifting is really fun that sound is something irretrievable the sound that the engine makes that's hearing the sound of the 70s again colorado orange and matte black in the rear view mirror more than 50 years ago that was a bad omen for many porsche and mercedes race drivers and right back into the pits too bad that it's already over it's really a lot of fun to drive a great car from the old days sensational for the young company in the 60s and 70s racing became a springboard for making the alpena brand world famous founder definitely wanted to present his advanced development of bmw engines to a broad public and the amazing racing circus was the perfect vehicle for it motorsport is the best stage to showcase how competitive you are in those wild days another racing legend started his career called me i drove to buckler it wasn't long before we agreed that i'd drive for him the pay was relatively low at least by today's standards but i was supposed to go and do my military service in austria and if i worked abroad then that whole business would be postponed and that's why my second question to bulkheart was can i register with you that's why i was registered in bukla also began to work there and started out in a great season the racing colleagues were enthusiastic about the young austrian this bit the best was the 1973 newborn ring race a six-hour race where nikki drove a lap time that was never surpassed again in the alpena with a two-valve engine back then niki lauda drove the 22 kilometers of the north loop in 8.21 minutes average speed 160 kilometers per hour via front actually we didn't think we were ever particularly good but the others were much worse south german modesty [Music] that was really typical of bulkhead he has this idea the cars are so dirty it had rained at the north ring and then everything is just filthy he wants both cars and both were in the lead to stop at the pit the lead was big enough to wash them so he then had his finish line photo with clean cars and then i asked him if he was crazy maybe so but most of all had a vision for the future of alpina under alpena's leadership we did a really great job no doubt about it we also won some great races and spa and the newer bull ring we worked hard at the same time we also had fun the secret to success was the brand name alpina under the leadership of in one of the two workshops with the front spoiler already mounted now the b7 gets the aerodynamic component for the rear the spoiler isn't just for looks it pushes down the rear of the touring car holding it to the road adjusted by hand the spoiler adheres to the right place in a few seconds [Music] because tensioning tools or clamps would scratch the paint these sandbags provide the necessary contact pressure now the glue cures for 12 hours [Music] while everything is drying in the rear a colleague replaces the switch paddles on the steering wheel of the b7 he replaces the standard bmw levers with a racing development with switch buttons the installation of the airbag is the last thing left to do and then the leather steering wheel is complete again nearly all alpena steering wheels go through the hands of isolde clerk with a patient hand and an acute eye she recovers a steering wheel in six [Music] hours the series production steering wheel was removed covered with four new pieces of leather and stitched together the saddler produces 270 pieces per year entirely by hand and there's also always a little something extra [Music] then the saddlery covers more than just steering wheels for 24 000 euros the 13 employees replace the entire bmw interior up to 120 vehicles per year get a new alpena interior in buchloe for a car like this it takes one finisher about 120 hours when it's all said and done an suv interior has close to 40 square meters that need to be re-upholstered with leather the required cuts come from this cutting table in buchloa they use lavalina leather from southern germany austria and switzerland the employee uses the projector to position the template in a way that leaves the least amount of scrap [Music] the plotter wields its shape blade to cut the outlines in the leather 427 individual pieces are required for the interior of the xb7 these cuts here are just for the driver's seat an automotive saddler then sews the complicated leather shapes into a seat covering joining nearly 90 segments together like a puzzle fabricating a complete driver's seat gobbles up 16 hours then equipped with monitor switches and screens it can be installed in its final position facing the instrument panel of the suv [Music] because as a car manufacturer we would have to conduct new crash tests and that would make the whole thing too expensive the old leather from the standard series production interior is chopped up and recycled home stretched to the finish line for the 7 series touring car this plaque is mounted to the center console of the buchloa cars and then the small series luxury car is finished now the 200 000 euro touring car can show what it's made of it was fully equipped at the bmw plant in dingo thing then the specialists in buchloa completed the alpena upgrade for the extra 64 000 euros over the cost of the standard 7 series model the proud owner gets a reworked twin-turbo v8 engine with 608 horsepower and a modified exhaust system the extra 50 newton meters of torque catapults this race car from zero to 100 kilometers per hour one second faster the top speed is now a full 330 kilometers per hour the new exterior includes a front apron 20-inch forged wheels a rear apron with diffuser fins and the rear spoiler in addition there's also an exclusive interior appointed with the finest lavalina leather alpina car manufacturer from bavaria and one of the most exclusive automotive brands in the world when the power of a bmw isn't quite enough there's special equipment from buchloa that transforms a series production car into a truly superlative automobile this family business will keep developing high performance parts in the future so horsepower junkies with some pocket money can stand out from the crowd you

Channel: WELT Documentary

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Keywords: full documentary, full documentaries, hd documentary, hd documentaries, free documentary, welt documentary, welt documentaries, full length documentaries, documentary film, top documentaries, reports, factual film, Alpina XB7, BMW SUV, Alpina B7, production, test, performance, quality, vehicle, Munich, Buchloe, manufactured, BMW, company, Alpina, manufactor

Id: _axc8J_4zKk

Length: 50min 30sec (3030 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 21 2021