| 02-19-2015, 05:51 PM | #1 |
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We visit Alpina & RUF automobiles facilities
Munich, Germany (tis was the week before Christmas...) Back in November, a friend of mine asked if I'd be interested in meeting up with him while he was in town/Munich. My friend, Janne qdtjant writes for the official BMW Car Club of Sweden. Janne would be coming to Munich along with his editor, Petter - for a BMW press conference on efficient dynamics. Of course my answers was YES! Janne and Petter (his editor) write for the Club's monthly magazine: Bayerisches Blatt. Here is a link to the club, but it's in Swedish of course.  http://www.bmwcs.com/bayerischesBlatt.php Bayerisches Blatt - monthly magazine... Janne, Petter and I all hit it off quite well. The three of us would check off two very special places off of our own personal "Bucket Lists": A visit to Alpina Automobiles and RUF, famous Porsche tuner/automobile manufacture. Christmas would be coming early for all of us this year!  You might remember Janne from his awesome writeup on getting a M-PPK tune for his F34: 335 GT Janne's M Performane Power Kit (MPPK) 335i N55 installation - F34 GT http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=920732 We (Janne and I) met for the first time back in the Fall of 2013, at the BMW Welt. Janne and his wife came to Munich to pick up his 335i GT on ED back then. Janne and I and another friend of mine (Andreas with a 1M) met for a awesome drive South thru the Bavarian and Austrian Alps: 135i, F34 and a 1M. It was a nice drive.  Since then, Janne and I have met at a few BMW press events. So we both try to make it a habit to meet up when he is in town. Sweden is a long ways off. And I never need an excuse to go visit the BMW Welt or Museum! This visit, we had planned something a little bit special. A trip to Alpina and to RUF (Porsche). We all agreed we must go to both shops. It would be a dream come true. We had no idea what to expect though. We also had dinner with a friend of Petter's who works at BMW AG in the press dept. Lets just call him: Manfred - I don't want his email's inbox to fill up.  Manfred was really nice to us. We had a really nice dinner at a posh Munich steakhaus (called the brennergrill.de). And we talked about many subjects that evening. It was a great night amongst - four car guys.  One of the things that Manfred was very proud of... was a BMW youtube project, he had an idea for and helped produce. It was called: M235i and speedway bike drift. The motor bike was driven by the famous Karl Maier. What was most interesting was how he told us that the company was very afraid that this "stunt" would not be understood by the many BMW Fans thru the world. Manfred was certain they would! He was right. It was a fascinating account of one person (Manfred) having an idea, and following thru with it. And how a corporation can have its doubts, but still produce such a project. I think the results are an awesome YouTube story for BMW. I am glad they went thru with it.  Another subject we touched on was a story that was making the rounds of the internet that week: How someone at BMW AG was quoted as saying that the internal combustion engine would be DEAD within ten years time. Manfred flatly denied this story as being a falsehood. He said while hybrids and full electric cars might be ever increasing in sales numbers... by far most cars sold (at BMW) would continue to be internal combustion engines. Another subject we talked about was what we all thought the next M2 should be and not be. It was interesting that Manfred said that most of the people he works with at BMW still want to own a 1M. Because the 1M still remains the most pure ///M product in recent years. I found this interesting, because I told him that most Germans I know - will trade in their cars before two years of ownership is over. He quipped that sometimes he has been guilty of that. In fact he admitted that instead of changing wiper blades or tires after six or twelve months... he just puts in for a new company car. Perks of teh job! First stop, Alpina. Buchloe, Germany www.alpina-automobiles.com/en/ The reason why we headed over to Alpina is because Janne wants to buy a B5 wagon. The good folks over at Alpina just happened to have a low mileage B5 wagon demo for sale - and were were there to test drive the car. For those of you who don't know... the B5 is basically a luxury M5 in wagon form. It has almost as much power and it has and awesome Akra/Alpina tuned exhaust. The exhaust sounded like one of BMW's Performance Exhaust with more bass - with the same sort of pops and gargling. It was a VERY nice exhaust system. Not too loud, but not too quiet. Just what I would want in a B5 wagon. The interior was trimmed in the beige cream leather seats - that is just to die for. I totally forgot to take some interior pics. Sorry. We were overwhelmed by the car's performance. We drove the B5 for a few hours. It was a great afternoon playing around with the power and comfort that the B5 affords. We were all amazed at how well the car put down its power even in pouring rain with three people aboard - on the back roads of Southern, Bavaria. Our test car did not even have an LSD (its optional) but we never could feel any wheel spin. We were all amazed by that, considering on how much power was on tap. Alpina products just rock - I'm hooked! In the end, Janne has decided to order a new B5 with the options he desires. It was a hard choice for him. So the long wait begins. We were hoping for a private tour of the Alpina factory. That would have to wait for our next visit. Being so close to Christmas, most of their production was already shut down. But we were promised special tour later this summer - so stay tuned. We WILL be back! Landsberg am Lech... Our 430d GC press car... Black over Coral Red... Christmas tree inside BMW Welt's gift shop... Marienplatz, Munich... Maximilianstrasse, Munich Four Seasons Hotel's Christmas ski-wagon restaurant cars Brenner Grill - downtown Munich... Alpina HQ in Buchloe Our B5 test car... espresso cups! Alpina's main business is selling wine... Alpina typewriter... Alpina center valve stem system... Our B5 wagon test drive... (the weather that day was a mixed bag sun/rain/grey...)
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| 02-20-2015, 07:12 PM | #2 |
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Visiting RUF...
an interesting car showed up while we were at Alpina. VW's 1l eco car. 1l = 230 MPG!!! This VW was quickly pulled into Alpina's workshops. I have no idea why. ? e6x Alpina B5 engine with supercharger. rated at 500 PS, most people say it had closer to 600 PS. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpina_B5 RUF www.ruf-automobile.de/temp_en.html It was a short drive from Buchloe to Pfaffenhausen(~25 minutes). We did not call ahead, we simply just stopped by to see what was there. We really lucked out! Once we said Hello inside Ruf's main office... we met Mrs Ruf. She was very kind to us and introduced us to her husband as soon as he finished with an important phone call. I must say meeting Mr Alois Ruf, was a religious experience. He(and his wife) were so nice to us, so friendly and cordial. Herr Ruf had his service director show us the entire facility and then we toured the new Porsche service center across the street! Alois told us that one of his passions in electric cars. So much so, that he tested the waters with a (Green, pun intended) eTarga. Alois owns several small micro hydro electric stations in the area. Infact he has three! I posted some pics bellow of one of his "clean" power plants. We talked about BMW's i-cars and how they are leading the way. We even talked about how Tesla had just announced the "INSANE" mode on their new sedan. The future is upon us. In ten years it will be interesting what direction car design will be. First we toured the Ruf garage. We saw a few 911's up in the air on the hoists. an early 911T, an RT12, a CTR and a 964. We were not allowed to take any pictures... (but I found some on the web and posted them bellow). One of the first things I noticed inside the service garage - was a sign listing the shop's mechanical labor rates. 108 euros per hour. That is incredibly cheap. My local BMW dealer charged 120 euros. I think any Porsche dealer would be in the upper 170 euro range. I was quite surprised. Alois Ruf told us how he and his wife think of his customer's as an extended "friend & family". That is the very impression we all have of the Ruf's. I really can not express how nice they were to total strangers. One interesting thing we saw inside the "shop" was how RUF is really working hard on a new powerplant. Alois Ruf told us how the modern BMW's/AMG Black series and Audi RS series cars are nipping at his car's heels these days. He gave it a lot of thought and he came to the conclusion that the flat six water cooled engine has reached its (HP)limits ~700 HP. Alois Ruf's solution is to use a water cooled twin turbo V8 of his OWN design. One that will easily produce more than 900 HP. As we walked around the repair shop and engine/trans rebuilding area... we saw two of these prototype V8tt engines. Then we were shown the engine dyno rooms. They have an old analog dyno(shown in the RUF Faszination videos) and a completely new digital dyno room. This is where we saw two techs installing one of these prototype V8's on the dyno for testing. It was quite cool seeing history in the making. We were then shown the body repair shop, next to the service area. Inside was everything one would need to a complete ground up restoration. One of the cool things was they had these huge dolly carts that would hold all the parts from ONE car. Everything you take off that car goes onto the roller cart. So you never loose any parts. They had their own paint booth and welding shop and machine shop. Everything needed to restore a car was there. Quite cool. We then headed across the street to the "new" shop. Here was what looked like a mini Porsche dealership. But actually what it was - was Germany's first SERVICE ONLY Porsche dealership. Here Ruf runs there own official, Porsche service center. No parts sales, no new car sales. Only servicing of Porsche vehicles, new and old. Seems that many of Ruf's customer's wanted to take their "other" Porsche's to Ruf for service. And they simply had no room in their old shop. So the solution was to build a brand new stand alone, P-Service center across the street. Its been a huge hit. I think our tour guide said there three "other" service centers around Germany, since Ruf has opened their shop. I think this is a good thing. We made our way back to the main shop and said our Thanks & Goodbye's. We really were shown a very special insider's guide to Ruf. Many thanks Herr Ruf. Not my video but it gives you an idea on how clean RUF's shop is... In 1987, RUF produced the "CTR Yellow Bird". The worlds first production car with: 6 speed manual trans(porsche had just starting offering a 5sp to replace its ancient 4sp manual unit on its Turbo's), the CTR was also teh first production car to have 17" wheels as standard. Most cars at this time made due with 15's or 16's. The CTR also only weighed in at 2,600 lbs and had a top speed of 211 mph. The twin turbo flat six produced 469 Hp with 408 ft/lbs. The engine was rumored to produce well over 500 Hp! The CTR was THE world's fastest production car for from 1987 and onwards. Still today its no slouch! The RUF CTR Yellow Bird... and famous film/dvd RUF produced and sells. It's a classic!! RGT-8 w/watercooled V8tt power... the old analog dyno still used today... Mr & Mrs Ruf... Alois Ruf's hydro electric plant he owns. We stopped here for a quick dinner. This was an old water mill, converted into a restaurant. It was a nice place. Droping our press car off at BMW and heading our to the Munich airport... PS: Next time we might try to visit: Noelle Motors www.noellemotors.de/en/ since they are also quite close to Alpina.
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| 02-23-2015, 12:44 PM | #4 |
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Awesome! Still have to make my way over to Alpina... next time!
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| 02-23-2015, 01:38 PM | #8 | |
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| 02-23-2015, 01:43 PM | #9 |
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Wonderful! Dackelone !
Thanks for the good article and photos! The places are very beautiful. I agree with Mr. RUF. Cars M, AMG and RS cars are as fast as most Porsche. I think it is the best tuner Alpina is in Germany, is as refined and careful with things. Alpina is the daughter of BMW. Now only left to visit other tuners Germany as AC Schnitzer, Hartge, Breyton, Hammann and G-Power.  Last edited by Pure; 02-23-2015 at 02:14 PM.. |
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| 02-23-2015, 02:00 PM | #10 |
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as always
 
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| 02-23-2015, 03:06 PM | #12 |
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N55 TT
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| 02-23-2015, 04:41 PM | #15 | |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruf_CTR3 Its powered by that watercooled ttV8 that RUF has developed.
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| 02-23-2015, 05:10 PM | #16 |
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Amazing trip, photos and story! Both places are fantastic destinations for any car enthusiast. Thanks for taking the time to document this and describe it all for us!
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| 02-24-2015, 02:34 AM | #19 | |
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Thanks for the great post!
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'00 Honda S2000 (Silverstone Metallic, black leather, factory titanium shift knob + front lip + trunk spoiler, front shock tower brace, front subframe x-brace) Last edited by Bosozoku; 02-24-2015 at 02:58 AM.. |
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| 02-24-2015, 08:13 AM | #21 |
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Wow thanks for sharing, I love the "winter beater"
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| 02-24-2015, 09:06 AM | #22 |
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It's funny, in my younger days I could not truly appreciate what Alpina had to offer (primarily in the looks department). Now, I love everything about them and truly hope to own one some day. Thank you for sharing!
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, what model is that?
