BMW and Alpina have existed as separate entities for nearly a hundred years but when they combine, the two companies produce some incredible cars. The BMW Alpina is synonymous with power, energy and style and has become one of the most sought after brands of classic vehicle around.

The history of BMW is well documented and the company was first launched in 1917, shortly before the end of World War One. Through the years, they have progressed through aircraft and motorcycle manufacture to produce a range of luxury, executive and sports cars that have become popular all across the globe.

Meanwhile, the story of Alpina is an interesting one and the company's roots had very little to do with motor cars. Founded in 1965, Alpina first started making typewriters before their owner, Burkard Bovensiepen moved into vehicle tuning after making some successful investments.

The collaboration with BMW was established and the first BMW Alpina appeared in the latter half of the 1960's. The company began by tuning the BMW 1800 which had been launched in 1963. This was a perfect opportunity for Alpina to exploit because the 1800 had been brought in to replace the 1500 but it was met with a mixed reaction by those who felt that there weren't enough improvements that helped to increase the performance.

Alpina's tuning services therefore went to work on upgrading the model and this came in the form of a do it yourself tuning kit which helped to improve the intake system. Naturally, this caught BMW's attention and after their own research and development department approved the tuning kit, an official linkup between the two companies was established.

Perhaps the most iconic collaboration came in the shape of the BMW M3 Alpina. The M3 was a powerful and much sought after car in its own right but the styling and extra performance that Alpina tuning gave it, saw sales rocket. Today, if you use the term BMW Alpina, many enthusiasts will initially think of the M3 version.

Alpina gave extra performance to their cars but there were many cosmetic changes that made their models very distinctive. The company uses its own, patented range of metallic paints which set an Alpina apart from a standard BMW. In addition, these cars come with a very recognisable set of 20 spoke, alloy wheels.

Branded interiors are also present which include expensive materials and hand stitching while BMW Alpina cars all come with automatic transmissions and don't carry the manual or semi-automatic systems that BMW use themselves.

In 1983, Alpina was finally recognised as a vehicle manufacturer in its own right and although their own range of cars are unmistakably derived from the BMW production line, they are all branded solely as Alpinas.

This development came from a lot of painstaking work and it was well deserved. The joint efforts of BMW and Alpina have brought us a long list of classic vehicle over a period lasting nearly fifty years. Some have ceased production to become highly sought after classics while new models still remain to carry on the names and bring a new generation of exciting cars onto our roads.