Old Alpina is back: the Bovensiepen 05 GT is a 789bhp modified M5 Touring

This is the Bovensiepen 05 GT. It is a big, heavy, five-door hybrid V8 estate with an astronomical amount of power and a design aesthetic crafted by a man who’s done an astronomically powerful British hypercar.

So IYKYK. For those still catching up, this is the work of the family who started Alpina. Not to go all Inception, but it’s basically been modified by the world’s-coolest-car-company’s-original-founders. Already this has moved several degrees cooler (and to the left of the board, to those who really know).

Clearly, it’s a modified BMW M5 Touring, though Bovensiepen is way too subtle to actually name check Munich’s hybrid leviathan. Instead, it talks about enlisting one Mr Frank Stephenson – who tells TopGear.com which cars he likes and which ones he doesn’t – for the car’s ‘striking’ design.

And it’s striking because… it looks like an Alpina. A ‘classic’ Alpina, not BMW’s ultra-lux rebirth. Bovensiepen talks about Frank’s ‘powerful’ front grille and bumper treatment, that then wraps around the entire lower section of the car. There’s a quad-exhaust setup and a cool bootlip spoiler.

Big wheels, too – 21in lightweight forged items “that radiate commitment to perfection through their symmetrical design”. How else would you know? They’re wrapped in bespoke Pirellis, while that exhaust we mentioned is a lightweight Akrapovic setup that gives off an “emotionally engaging, bass-heavy sound” and is 7.8kg lighter than standard. That you probably would know.

Not least because it’s powerful. Bovensiepen quotes 789bhp (800PS) and 811lb ft – increases over the standard 4.4-litre V8 M5 Touring’s 727bhp and 737lb ft. The 0-62mph time of less than 3.6s is as per BMW, though a 190mph top speed is miles more than standard, and what you’d officially call ‘watch this!’ fast. Though, this being Old Alpina, they’d prefer you didn’t watch this.

Weight? Exactly the same, a Herculean 2,555kg. And that’s including the company’s lux interior which includes much leather and the opportunity to basically bespoke the heck out of it. “A trunk lining fully upholstered in Alcantara? A personalised embossed stamp for the headrests? Elaborate custom embroidery?” Bovensiepen asks, somewhat rhetorically.

The result is “a treat for all the senses”, according to Andreas Bovensiepen. It was his father Burkard who started Alpina all those years ago. According to Mr Stephenson, the 05 GT “shows how careful, intelligent exterior design can transform the character of a car without losing the integrity of what made it appealing in the first place”.

“It is subtle, yes, but also confident,” he adds. Confident price, too: each one will start from just under €200k in Germany. Old Alpinas were always an IYKYK kind of car – because this Bovensiepen is even more niche, does that make it cooler still? Let us know below.