Throwback Thursday 1971: Autocar's first Alpina experience

"The tuned engine is noisier," we said back in 1971, "although not obtrusively so. It emits a splendid growl, not unlike a well-tuned Lotus Twin Cam [probably because the same Weber units were used on some Lotus models].

"Throttle response is excellent and the car proved an untemperamental starter, needing the usual Weber procedure of two pumps on the throttle and half-throttle from cold."

We continued: "The engine 'comes on the cam' at 2800rpm, which is 50mph in top gear and 42mph in third. It's still reasonably tractable below that, and the driveline remains free from snatch when accelerating from low revs in high gear.

"But it is rattly and fussy under these conditions — 30mph in top gear isn't really on. In practice, one uses second most of the time in town. We think that the car would be much improved by fitting the lower 4.1 final drive and the optional five-speed gearbox, which costs another £150. The lower axle would undoubtedly further improve the acceleration and would make fuller use of the improved rev range (up to 6400rpm).

"As it is, the conversion improves the car's 0-60mph time by 2.2sec, with 8.4sec to our original road test 2002's 10.6sec. To 90mph, the improvement is up to 7.2sec (19.2sec against 26.4sec). There is, however, considerable variation between individual standard 2002s, because our long-term test car was 1.7sec slower to 60mph than the road test car."

The Alpina conversion also provided the 2002 with a top speed of 111mph, up from 107mph, and a drop of 4.6mpg in average fuel economy to 20.4mpg.

In addition to the engine modifications, Crayford's Alpina had wider alloy wheels, necessitating a reshaped flange on the wheel arches (£16) and a cast-aluminium, offset bonnet air scoop (sourced from the US, so not an official Alpina part) to feed air directly into the Webers' large double air filter. 

Other modifications on offer, but not fitted to our car, included a kit to lower and stiffen the rear suspension by boxing in the semi-trailing arms and fitting new dampers, as well as ventilated brake dsics, improving what we called "the weakest feature of the car in high-speed driving". These, and the packed-out calipers that accompanied them, cost £45.

Aside from some steering troubles (apparently likely due to the demonstrator car being rather well used), namely the rack "not being as positive as it should have been" and, very disturbingly, the "tendency for the steering column and engine to touch under hard acceleration on a tight lock", we found the Alpina car's "handling and roadholding to be as one would expect, with a tendency to lift an inside wheel near to the limit".

We considered that "the stiffened-up suspension would improve the car for high-speed driving", because "although the ride is beautifully controlled for normal use, there's perhaps too much movement when cornering fast on undulating roads".

Crayford's next project after the 2002 was to sell Alpina parts for the 2800 coupé. Meanwhile, back in Buchloe, work was under way on the legendary BMW 3.0 CSL.