Advice on ID'ing an Alpina tii?

[JayKehoe]

Hi Ed: I have a color brochure from Alpina advertising the Alpina A4s that were built for the European market. My appraiser, who owns a genuine Euro 2002 A4, told me Alpina only built 14 cars to the A4/A4S spec. The brochure shows a square light Chamonix car, with Chrome bumpers( ala Turbo), and most notable, an antennae in the E30 M3 position( in middle of the roof front). The specs on these cars were A4 MFI system with Alpina valves & head, 300 cam, re-cammed pump, higher compression pistons, and Alpina struts, diff., and wheels. Just a few of these cars were recorded to have been brought to the USA as grey market cars. But, Alpina parts dealers, like Hardy and Beck, Miller and Norborne( sp?)., B. Nesbit, and some others, were able to buy all the Alpina parts often seen in the ad pic, and assemble 2002s to complete Alpina spec. for special customer orders, and for their own use. Dubois' Polaris Alpina, that has been in the books, is an A2, I think: tii without A4 system. Some mechanics, like my mechanic, were able to get ahold of the A4 MFI system, and then build 2002s to meet, or to exceed the A4 spec. on the 14 original cars. However, Alpina did not keep records of the completed cars, or of the production numbers on their A4 systems, long block engines, or other rare components. Like Michael observes, your car will "stand on its own merit".I think it will drive as well as its components allow it to, aside from tuning/set-up issues. There are a few USA assembled 2002s that have all/manyof the Alpina ancillary goodies, aside from the Alpina tuned engine itself. Alan Hardy, in Berkeley Ca. is one person who can identify all the Alpina parts, from the "day". He did this once for my friend, and charged a substantial fee to do so. Good luck with your 02. Enjoy your car for what it does on the road. Attempts to find/prove Alpina provenance can drive you nuts and diminish the joy the car has to offer.

[Guest]

From the mid '70s 'til about '79, M&N imported about a dozen(+/-) Alpina A4s systems. Because they were not BMW, the systems were never permitted on the IMSA-RS 2002 cars. I think you had to spend about $1300 back then to get one. Oh, and they are really hard to get to run right on a street car. WFO, no problems.

mac.

[speetiiwhitedevil]

Thanks Jay, and all that replied - I think the wealth of info here (and the sound advice to just stop worrying about it and enjoy it for what it is) is just what I needed.

Ed