One to Buy: 1 of 1 UK market 1989 Alpina Z1 RLE
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Despite a high price and left-hand drive only, BMW managed to sell 8000 examples of the avant-garde Z1 between late 1988 and mid 1991. It helped that the little two-seat Roadster was launched into a red hot collector car market, but there was also much pent-up demand (particularly in Germany) as BMW hadn’t offered such a machine for three decades (when the 507 was in production).
The only real criticism of the Z1 was that it could have handled considerably more power than the 170bhp developed by its 2.5-litre straight six which was nearly an exact match for a standard E30 325i unit.
This lack of grunt was addressed when Alpina put their Z1 RLE into production during August 1990. The RLE (Roadster Limited Edition) featured Alpina’s 2.7-litre motor from the B3 2.7 combined with a new Z1-specific exhaust system.
In addition to its new 200bhp engine, the RLE came with a host of other Alpina enhancements to include 17-inch wheels, a trademark decal kit (in gold or silver), Alpina road and engine speed gauges, an Alpina steering wheel and Alpina gear knob.
By the time production was discontinued in August 1991, only 66 Z1 customers had elected to have their car uprated to RLE trim.
Of these, just one RLE was supplied to the UK and that car is set to go under the hammer at Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Speed auction on July 14th.
Owned by the vendor since December 1991, it is showing a little over 8000 miles from new and last underwent a major service in 2021.
