It’s not every day you hear about a priceless piece of automotive history being swapped for a basic, factory-new Lada. But that’s exactly the kind of wild, behind-the-Iron-Curtain backstory that belongs to the 1937 BMW 328 “Bügelfalte.” This past weekend, set against the impossibly manicured lawns of the 2026 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, this incredibly rare streamline roadster stepped out of its Cold War shadows to take home the coveted Best of Show.
Chassis 85032 was never meant to be a pampered museum queen. Rolling off the line in May 1937, it was handed straight to Rudolf Schleicher, the mastermind behind BMW’s experimental department. It cut its teeth at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Tourist Trophy with British wheelman H.G. Dobbs, before snagging the 2-liter class win at the 1938 Mille Miglia. That sheer racing pedigree basically turned the car into a high-speed rolling laboratory for Munich, culminating in its famous run at the 1940 Mille Miglia. Fast forward to May 16th and 17th of this year, and Italian collector Stefano Martinoli is holding up the “Trofeo BMW Group.” The victory cements a pretty clear trend among the Villa d’Este judges: they have a massive soft spot for authentic pre-war track legends, a bias they already showed when an Alfa Romeo P3 took the crown in 2025. The 328 effortlessly beat out a crowded field of modern GTs and concepts by just being effortlessly, historically cool.
A V8-Powered Sigh of Relief
Speaking of modern concepts, BMW didn’t just show up to Lake Como to bask in its heritage. They used the weekend to drop a massive hint about where they’re heading next—specifically, what they’re doing with Alpina.
Some coincidences are just too perfect. Over the span of a few days, the car world essentially got a roadmap for two legendary tuning houses recently swallowed up by their parent companies: Mercedes-AMG and BMW-Alpina. Munich officially brought Alpina in-house back in 2025, and honestly, the purists have been holding their breath ever since. With the legendary “M” badge getting slapped on just about every heavy SUV under the sun lately, gearheads were terrified Alpina would lose its signature blend of brute force and tailored refinement.
The new Vision Alpina puts those fears to bed. While AMG’s latest models have left plenty of folks scratching their heads in sheer confusion, Alpina’s trajectory couldn’t be more different. For starters, after years of polarizing, hyper-aggressive styling cues, Munich has finally remembered how to draw a clean line. And crucially, this isn’t just a dolled-up 8 Series; it’s a bespoke, standalone GT coupe with a beautifully understated design that calls back to BMW’s golden era.
And in a move that feels like a breath of fresh air right now, this thing isn’t an EV. It’s packing a V8. Sure, the official press release is playing coy on the exact displacement and output, but we know this concept is a dead ringer for the first true next-gen Alpina dropping in 2027. Expect that eight-cylinder to stick around for production, likely paired with a hybrid setup. Between a pre-war racer that survived the Soviet Union and a bespoke grand tourer pointing to tomorrow, BMW somehow managed to map out the entire automotive spectrum in a single weekend.
