SOT: Vintage Alpina advertizing (circa 1977)

[dubois]

I have been browsing some of my old publications, some of it is hilarious, I"ll try scanning & posting on a regular basis. Some like this, begs the questions...

[Vroomer]

"did anyone order from them?"

and

"where are they now?"

[BarryA]

"did anyone order from them?" and "where are they now?"

Hardy & Beck.

[tjones02]

"did anyone order from them?" and "where are they now?"

Hardy & Beck.

http://www.hbspecialists.com/

They may still be able to build sets of their wheels, but the last price I was quoted 10 years ago was $750 ea. I have no idea if they can still supply anything else they used to make.

[c.d.iesel]

wrong way! down the up-hill at Lime Rock!

[Guest Anonymous]

Michael, please do - the old stuff I think is so cool. My first 02 (1969) was originally owned by Alan Hardy. When I was in college at Cal I was a regular down at there place - then of 4th street in berkeley. It was awesome going in there and seeing 02's, 32o's, 323i's, Hardy even brought in a few M1's back then. In about 1980-81 range rumor has it that Burkard Bovensiepen (Mr. ALPINA) made a surprise visit on his way to buy wine in the Napa Valley and popped into ALPINA West only to find his stuff right along next to Hardy & Beck parts that were virtually identical. The H&B 3 piece wheel is very similar to the 3 piece wheel ALPINA offered (and many, many other parts ditto on that). Bovensiepen was really unhappy - no more ALPINA West, ALPINA West ultimately turned into Hardy & Beck BMW Performance. They are still in business. I was going to have them rebuild my tii motor, then I ended up selling. Alan Hardy has a really (really) cool looking "champagne" gold (light gold) 74 tii that has had custom steel (Alpina-esque) flares/arches added on (pretty funny they are so similar to the ALPINA flares/arches) that cover a set of his 6x15 front 7x15 rear H&B 3 piece wheels. Super clean really neat car.

[cj]

Off topic.

Mark, what color was your '69?

Cris

[dubois]

Mark, something Alpina must have rubbed off on H&B. The reason I said this is that I have driven 3 cars (not mine) with H&B engines, and they have all been real spinners, very smooth and balanced. Unlike other motors that seem to just pump and want to self destruct. I have also driven a few 02 Alpinas and it is the same as H&B. They must share a little secret in their construction. I did own a H&B engine once and I sold it for $500, I regret that now, it ended up in good hands.though...

[Guest Anonymous]

Absolutely true. They H&B had (and probably still do have) a really top drawer machine shop, they did all the porting/polishing, hemi chambers, balancing etc., that ALPINA did. I am sure that they had more than one opportunity to examine the various ALPINA cylinder heads. Our friend Jason P in Texas (Verona tii with A4) has a H&B motor in his car and as you know that car runs really strong. I have a whole pile of old H&B price sheets and a catalogue or two. I remember once being behind a white 320i at a signal over in the east bay. Underneath the 320i plaque on the back was a small black plaque "ALPINA". I could see the car had the ALPINA seats in it from the headrests and what were I beleive 6x13 ALPINA cast wheels. The signal turned and the car took off like a freaking rocket - I couldn't believe how fast it was, I couldn't catch up to it. I am almost certain it had an A4 motor in it and I think later it ended up being the car in the article on the 320i APINA in road and track. One more little H&B story, they had converted a 75 2002 that they called the H&B 2002, was written up a few times. The car had turbo flares and airdams, scheel seats, an A4s motor and bilstein suspension. The car cost like 30k or more to build, apparently the fellow who owned it was injured in a SF muni bus accident of some sort and was paid out a huge claim in a law suit, hence the money for the car. apparently he lived or lives up in the Rhonert Park area on a farm/ranch type property. Supposedly he didn't maintain the car and really just sort of beat it to death. No one that I know of has seen it for a really long time (who knows it might be stashed away in a barn or something up there).

[HarryPR]

There's a guy who posts over at the Bimmerforums E21 board (Jeff Beyer) that owns a sweet E21 with H&B wheels converted to 16" with BBS shells. He has posted a few pics of the H&B shop back in the day they were doing '02's and E21's.

Is the '02 shown the one you mention, Mark?

[Guest Anonymous]

Great Pictures!!!!! Brings back a lot of memories for sure. That could very well be the car only repainted light gold. I believe he mentioned that the wheel arches had been done in steel (not sure on that though) and I don't recall if it had double head lights or not. The only other thing is that he had standard tii injection - not the ALPINA A4 injection in the picture. He may have taken it off, as many of us long time Californian's can testify to, it hasn't always been easy to get our cars past smog.

[HarryPR]

Here's an article on Jeff's car. Looks a lot like the one that Paul Cain and then Tim Jones (m-racer) used to own (except that theirs was M30 powered, IIRC).