Bovensiepen Zagato driven: M-car hardware meets Italian coachwork

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7 mins read

16 June 2026

In Buchloe old habits die hard, if indeed they die at all.

The Bovensiepen family has now relinquished the rights to the 60-year-old Alpina name, trading them to the BMW Group, and the first model of their latest venture – Bovensiepen Automobile – represents a new dawn in a great many ways. And yet here we are, pounding round the Salzburgring in a modified BMW of a distinctly road-going disposition, with capitalised letters parading luridly across its chin.

There are twice as many letters now but it’s all uncannily familiar. When the Bovensiepens ran Alpina, a trip to the Salzburgring was their preferred method of letting the press loose in a fresh model. There’d be a couple of cars, chatty senior management and old workshop hands mulling in the pits, plus a mountain of ALP-marked tyres and Brembo brakes in one of the garages.

It never felt less than an incongruous arrangement, given the laid-back nature of the luxury cruisers that made Alpina famous, and sure enough, the same is true for the stunning new Bovensiepen Zagato. This £320,000 2+2, penned just outside Milan by Norihiko Harada, is pitched both as extra-special collector’s curio and as a credible alternative to something like an Aston Martin DB12 S, but one thing it is certainly not is a track-day blade. It’s an opulent, leather-stuffed GT with monstrous torque.

That said, one key difference between the Zagato and Alpinas of yore – even the most special ones – is that rather than being based on a mainline BMW, underneath the full carbon body lurks an M4. An M4 Competition xDrive Convertible. We will come to the implications of the Zagato using a full-blown M base in a moment, but first, why choose the heavier convertible?

Chiefly because it allowed for the pillarless design that so appeals to company owner and CEO Andreas Bovensiepen. It also meant the double-bubble roofline – a Zagato signature since 1948 – could be designed and fabricated from scratch, then installed without cutting into the donor car’s monocoque. And it was worth it, because the way the contours of the roof flow seamlessly into the rear screen is one of the prettiest things about the car.

That and the wicked rake of the bonnet, which is 100mm longer than that of an M4 and hides a scything outlet whose existence must be 20% necessity and 80% theatre. It culminates in headlights as low as the BMW architecture allows, and the effect is predatory but undeniably elegant and to these eyes a touch Lagonda.

The conversion removes the donor car’s folding roof mechanism. The new body of 12 carbon panels then weighs just 50kg, even with the fixings that pin them to the underlying structure. While the join between the roof and M4 Convertible’s header rail can only be disguised so much, it’s a deft job in the main. If there’s any drawback, it’s that the rear haunches are double-skinned. They form an integral part of the crash structure and the steel couldn’t simply be removed and replaced with carbon, so the latter is laid over the top.

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Inside you’ll find humble 4 Series ergonomics juxtaposed with an almost obscene degree of material lavishness. This is where the Bovensiepen saddlery excels and where you begin to understand why each car takes a minimum of 250 hours to build, rising to 400 hours if the commission is grand enough. The boot alone – appointed in tobacco Alcantara with white stitching on our car – is the equal of Bugatti polishing the wishbones of the Veyron to a sheen: unnecessary but, boy, it leaves an impression.

In the cockpit, barely any surface that is not finished in carbonfibre is covered in pristine supple leather (Lavalina if you like), from the floor to the Alcantara-trimmed ceiling. There’s little doubt these cabins will age beautifully, and in an era where sustainable, man-made upholstery is in vogue, it all feels borderline illicit.

Because it is an M4 at heart, the Zagato’s driving ergonomics are very good. Firm, low, reassuring seats are complemented by plenty of adjustability in the steering column. The BMW’s surprising generosity of rear leg room is also carried over. Visibility is excellent too, what with the lack of B-pillars and a rear screen far larger than the M4 Convertible allows for. In short, this car is much more usable than most £300k-plus specials.

Elsewhere, Bovensiepen has tried to inject some shape into the inky, unromantic cliff face that is the M4’s sweeping digital display. It was worth an attempt, but the slim cowling that is ahead of the driver is the only bit of the cockpit that feels a bit bolt-on. Not so the paddle shifters, which are in aluminium and not only look the part but also feel more satisfying in use than the rubberised blades of the M4.

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Fire up the Zagato and it is unapologetically loud. The nasal timbre is trademark ‘S58’ 3.0-litre straight six, but a higher-frequency rasp and greater bass betray the titanium exhaust from Akrapovic. And you get the works – the titanium starts at the block, not the silencer. The resulting drop in back pressure, with a modified intake tract and an electronic tickle, raises power from 534bhp in the M4 to 602bhp, with torque swelling from 479lb ft to 516lb ft.

It gives the 1875kg Zagato a power-to-weight ratio of 321bhp per tonne – a little better than that of the current Porsche 911 Carrera GTS – and with four-wheel drive the 3.3sec 0-62mph time feels a touch conservative.

Launching the Zagato out of the pit lane confirms silly-fast status. A handful of laps on circuit is not going to provide the final insight for a car like this, though Ostschleife – with its terrifyingly porridge-textured track surface, entered at more than 160mph in a car this rapid – is a good assessment of composure.

On which note, Bovensiepen has swapped out the M4’s factory dampers for a set of Bilstein Damptronics. It also fits custom Eibach springs and has changed the top mounts and installed slimmer anti-roll bars. The donor car’s spread of three driver-selectable damping modes is retained but the characteristics are altered to give the Zagato’s body more freedom of movement and long-legged compliance.

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Meanwhile, the forged wheels wear Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres – 285/30 at the front and 295/25 at the back, mirroring the largest optional fitment available on an M4. Interestingly the torque split between the axles hasn’t been tinkered with and neither have the electronically controlled M differential or ESC settings (so you get M Dynamic Mode).

It is obvious that Andreas Bovensiepen and the team have enjoyed using a tough-as-nails M-car base rather than a mainline BMW, as was the Alpina way. He described the M4 as being “perfect” and not needing anything in the way of driveline or chassis reinforcement, or additional cooling.

The result of all this is a bit of a conceptual mutant: a more relaxed M car, a psychopath in repose. On track you notice the additional suspension travel the Zagato allows compared with an M4. It manifests in the form of extra suppleness of course, the body subjected less to the turbulence underwheel, but also in a more neutral and less playful balance.

You have to work harder to get the Bovensiepen to rotate, and through its vertical travel, the body feels heftier than I was expecting. But that heft, along with the extra neutrality both on a trailing brake and under power, perfectly suits the torquey thrust of the car and the all-weather touring brief. Whether you can forgive the small deficit in structural rigidity that comes as a result of using the convertible monocoque, not that of the coupé, is a matter of how much you love the roofline.

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I confess at this point that I did not slot the driveline in RWD and hang the Zag out around Ostschleife, or any other bend. Time was short and our follow-the-leader lapping wasn’t an appropriate format for that. But there’s little reason to doubt that, on the road, in rear-drive mode, and with the dampers in Sport Plus, this car wouldn’t be fluidly entertaining.

It is softer than an M4, yes, but has the same core tautness and this gives it predictability and precision. In terms of dynamic character, the blend of insouciance with underlying control and effortless torque make it tempting to compare the Zagato with something like a revitalised Ferrari 550 Maranello.

We’ll have to drive this rare machine on the road to know for sure, but with only 99 examples planned, there is no guarantee we’ll get the chance. Do feel free to envy the owners, though. Lord knows they’re paying for the privilege, but in the Zagato, they’ll own a beautifully finished, indecently pretty but unostentatious coupé in the mould of the classics, and one that’s sensibly sized and undemanding to drive fast. The Bovensiepens have gone back to the future.

Price £319,000 (approx) Engine 6 cyls in line, 2993cc, twin-turbocharged, petrol Power 602bhp at 7200rpm Torque 516lb ft at 2500rpm Gearbox 8-spd automatic, 4WD Kerb weight 1875kg0-62mph 3.3sec Top speed More than 186mph Economy 27.2mpg CO2, tax band 235g/km, 37% Rivals Aston Martin DB12 S, Ferrari Amalfi

Richard Lane

Title: Deputy road test editor

Richard is Autocar's deputy road test editor. He previously worked at Evo magazine. His role involves travelling far and wide to be among the first to drive new cars. That or heading up to Nuneaton, to fix telemetry gear to test cars at MIRA proving ground and see how faithfully they meet their makers' claims.

He's also a feature-writer for the magazine, a columnist, and can be often found on Autocar's YouTube channel.

Highlights at Autocar include a class win while driving a Bowler Defender in the British Cross Country Championship, riding shotgun with a flat-out Walter Röhrl, and setting the magazine's fastest road-test lap-time to date at the wheel of a Ferrari 296 GTB. Nursing a stricken Jeep up 2950ft to the top of a deserted Grossglockner Pass is also in the mix.