There’s something really special about BMWs of the 1980s, with their unique, upright shape that always somehow leads the eye to the aggressively slanted front fascia. One of the most iconic of the era is the E28, the second-generation 5-Series, which spawned a multitude of variants based on it, like the M5 and the Alpina B9. Both are known to be horribly expensive to buy.

The car you see here is not an original Alpina B9, but its owner has made sure you have a hard time seeing that. It’s a bog-standard 535i at heart, from the last year of production, 1988, that has been given an Alpina makeover, complete with one of that car’s unique liveries.

The inside has been treated the same way as the exterior, with an emphasis on it looking like an actual Alpina – it gets an original steering wheel, unique seat upholstery and a metric gauge cluster.

Power comes from a 3.5-liter straight-six that’s had a whole heap of mods thrown at it. The actual figure is 246 hp at 6,100 rpm, as per the dyno sheet shot you’ll find in the gallery below. Check it out after the jump, or take in the full list of mods from the original eBay ad.

By Andrei Nedelea

PHOTO GALLERY