The BMW 3 Series, produced from 1975 to 1983, was given the E21 body designation. They were the successor to the BMW 2002 and superseded by the BMW E30. Paul Bracq, Director of Design at BMW from 1970 to 1974, is credited with the design direction of the E21 3-Series. Wilhelm Hofmeister is credited with drawing the small forward wedge located at the base of the C-Pillar.
The new model series was presented to the public at the Munich Olympic Stadium in July 1975. The new car featured BMW's trademark kidney grille. The styling had a resemblance to the BMW E12 5-Series. MacPherson struts were located in the front with a semi-trailing arm type setup in the rear. Power-assisted disc brakes were located at the front. It had rack-and-pinion steering, rear drum brakes, and initially a Getrag four-speed manual transmission. Five-speed overdrive Getrag gearboxes were fitted as standard in 1980.
Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH, based in Buchloe, Germany, is an automobile manufacturing company that sell their own cars, based on BMW cars. Alpina works closely with BMW and is recognized by the German Ministry of Transport as an automobile manufacturer, rather than performance specialists which are aftermarket tuners.
The Alpina B6 was one of their earlies cars and was based on the E21. Just 533 examples were produced over a 6 year period. It is believed that around 90 currently exist.
Along with stickers and Alpina wheels, the B6 was given several mechanical upgrades which included modifications to the engine. The basic formula for the car's appeal was to fit the largest big block BMW engine into the smallest early 3-Series bodyshell. Alpina blueprinted each engine at their Buchloe Headquarters. They raised the compression ratio and fitted a special Alpina Cylinder head and hemispherical combustion chambers.
By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2016
