What do almost all of us car enthusiasts want as our perfect daily driver? We want something small, nimble, sporty, good looking, rear-wheel drive, and manual, right? Most of us can’t have that, as so many of us have families and pragmatic realities that require larger, more sensible vehicles. But in an ideal car world, something like this 1988 ALPINA C2.
Being a 1988 model, the ALPINA C2 was based on the E30 3 Series and this specific car is a sedan. While the coupe might be more desirable among enthusiast, there’s something special about driving a sedan that’s as exciting and sporty as this one. It’s painted Alpine White but features ALPINA’s iconic blue and green livery, which gives it a motorsport vibe. It features a bit front apron, a subtle rear spoiler, and ALPINA’s famously beautiful wheels.
Inside, lovely fabric sport seats sport ALPINA-colored trim, it gets a wooden shift knob, and a four-spoke steering wheel. The inside also looks perfect, with no signs of wear and tear, its dashboard lacks any sort of sun fade, and all of the touch points look unused. With 66,000 miles on the odometer, you’d figure there’d be at least some wear.
However, this is an E30-based ALPINA we’re talking about. What’s most important is what powers it. Under the hood lies a bored version of BMW’s 2.5-liter inline-six, which ALPINA increased to 2.7-liters. It also featured an upgraded camshaft, headers, and a tune. When new, it made 204 horsepower and 195 lb-ft of torque, all of which is sent through a five-speed manual transmission to just the rear wheels. ALPINA claimed a 0-60 mph time of 6.9 seconds and a top speed of 141 mph.
This specific car is a Japanese-market model, with the serial number #0070 (why does it have to have that last “0?”), and is one of only 74 models ever made.
At the time of writing this, there are still six days left on the auction and the current bid is at $15,000. However, expect the price to go up quite a bit over the next few days, as old, extremely rare ALPINAs like this one are highly sought after. It might just look like a boxy ’80s sedan but it’s so much more than that. The standard E30 was a great everyday car but it wasn’t special like this ALPINA C1 is. If I were in the market for a classic sport sedan, this would be hard to pass up.
[Top Image: Not the actual car / Image by ALPINA]
