Is the Bovensiepen Zagato finally an M4 to crave?
Alpina as we know it is gone. Bovensiepen Automobile takes up the reins with a new coach-built 611hp GT
The question of what the Bovensiepen family - erstwhile owners of Alpina - would do next has been emphatically answered. Using Villa d'Este Concorso d'Eleganza as a backdrop, and just a day after BMW revealed the new V8-powered Speedtop, the newly established coachbuilder, using the famous surname as a standalone brand for the first time, revealed the Bovensiepen Zagato - a 611hp grand tourer powered by a 3.0-litre straight-six. What a way to start, eh?
The second part of the name is no coincidence, of course: the famed Italian design studio is responsible for the car’s styling, and the collaboration - ‘bringing together the DNA of two families’ - is clearly elemental in making the new model a reality. The other element, plainly (though the firm doesn’t explicitly acknowledge it) is the recognisable underpinnings of this ‘masterpiece of contemporary coachbuilding’ - the current BMW M4.
While that might not necessarily be the starting place most of us would choose for a new GT car, if anyone is well-placed to make it happen, it is a company staffed by former Alpina engineers. Certainly Bovensiepen is making all the right noises: the chosen characteristics (including 516lb ft of torque) of the familiar 3.0-litre engine are said to have been refined ‘in countless hours’ of testing, and preliminary data suggests that 0-62mph in 3.3 seconds and a top speed beyond 186mph will be part of the Zagato’s remit.
That the car exceeds the power output and the quoted performance of the current M4 CS, pointedly suggests that Bovensiepen is happy to tread where Alpina previously wouldn’t. Elsewhere it seems the old tuner’s approach has very much carried over: the Zagato gets specially developed Damptronic dampers from Bilstein to ‘help deliver Fine Driving’, components that have been further optimised in-house for what the firm says is a ‘special “Gran Truismo” driving experience that let’s owners choose between ‘Comfort’, ‘Sport’ and ‘Sport Plus’ drive modes.
All are likely enhanced (and better defined) by the presence of a newly developed Akrapovic titanium exhaust system said to reduce back pressure while weighing only 22kg - around 40 per cent lighter than the standard alternative. The forged 20-inch aluminium wheels are claimed to be lighter, too - although not to the extent that the new body must be, with Bovensiepen suggesting that it is ‘made almost entirely of carbon fibre’.
Evidently, this novelty has kept the kerbweight in check rather than resulting in any revelatory difference (the company reports a DIN figure of 1,875kg for the Zagato) although it’s worth pointing out that would make it more than half a tonne lighter than the newly hybridised Bentley Continental GT Speed, likely a model that Bovensiepen now considers a direct rival. Certainly the luxuriousness of the leather-clad interior (while sharing all its prominent architecture with the M4) suggests that the new firm is targeting exactly the same kind of well-heeled buyer.
Much will depend on what people make of the new look. “It‘s a kind of mixture of Italian flair, a kind of sexy and soft design, and a German, very solid, almost architectural structure… it is a beautiful blend of these two automotive cultures, I would say,” reckons Norihiko Harada, Zagato’s Chief Designer. That the GT is considerably better looking than the underlying M4 is hardly a revelation; though it does seem to have better use of the proportions, and the ‘Double Bubble’ curvature of the roof and rear window (a Zagato signature) are likely to be more appreciable in the flesh than in studio pictures.
At any rate, we won’t have long to find out how successful the coachbuilding job has been: the pricing and production numbers for the newcomer will be released before the end of the year ahead of first deliveries in the second quarter of 2026. With the production time of each (highly customisable) example said to extend beyond 250 working hours at Bovensiepen’s facility in Buchloe, it would be fair to assume that the cost will be considerable - though not necessarily an impediment to the people who were buying flagship Alpina variants. If the Zagato appeals to them, the new venture will be off to a flyer.
This one, not so much. Unusually understated. I guess they know their target market.
Personally I like it, especially the interior, but I wish it had a little more Zagato bling. Especially if I was considering paying the no doubt huge price premium.
Love Alpina of old and it’s fantastic that their engineering ethos lives on.
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