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When this 2800CS left BMW it was a road car in metallic Tundra Green. Exactly what Alpina did to the car prior to the Spa 24 hour race we don’t know. From the photographs we can see the standard alloy wheels have had the centre caps removed and racing tyres fitted. A straight through, side exit exhaust was fitted which would have no doubt complimented a tuned engine. The bumpers had been removed, a roll cage is also visible and four spot lights were fitted to the front. The car performed exceptionally well finishing 9th overall and 8th in class. It was immediately obvious that the E9 Coupe and its straight six engine had huge potential. After the race Alpina offered to buy the car from BMW along with three others and all four were prepared for the 1970 European Touring Car Championship. The regulations allowed a small “bubble” wheel arch extension which all cars received along with the now legendary orange and black livery. Traces of the original Tundra Green and Alpina’s orange paint have been found on many components during the restoration. The regulations allowed for the engine capacity to be increased to 3 litres and all four cars ran triple Weber DCOE carburettors. Alpina campaigned the cars throughout 1970 with this car scoring a pole and a win with Alex Soler-Roig at the Salzburgring. For the 1971 season Alpina sold the car to privateer Jens Winther who went on to win the Danish Touring Car Championship outright with three wins and five 2nd place finishes. 1972 only saw the car race once in a DRM race at Diepholz. The car did not compete in 1973 and was eventually sold in October to Finnish driver Tuisku Urpiala. After a visit to Alpina in Germany, Urpiala decided to strip the car down and rebuild it to the latest Group 2 BMW 3.0 CSL specification. He ordered all the necessary parts from Alpina including a 360 bhp 3.5 litre race engine with slide throttle fuel injection, modified front and rear subframes and suspension, progressive coil springs, Bilstein dampers, adjustable anti-roll bars, aluminium brake disc supports and a differential cooler and pump. The bubble arches were removed and replaced with larger Group 2 arches and the interior was removed apart from the dashboard, headlining and door cards. The standard gauge panel was replaced with a custom gauge panel and Smiths Chronometric rev counter. The body shell was partially stripped at this point. Our investigation has revealed that the outside of the car was striped to bare metal but the windscreens were left in place. Traces of the original paint were found behind the window rubbers. A full set of CSL aluminium doors, bonnet and boot lid were fitted. The inside of the car was painted blue with the exterior in white with some intricate blue and red stripes. The CSL aerodynamic kit was added, which included the boot lid spoiler, rear wing and roof spoiler. Elaborate pipe work ran through the interior to transport fuel and oil and a new 8 point aluminium roll cage installed. The car was prepared for the 1974 Finnish Championship where Tuisku Urpiala finished 2nd overall. He returned with the car in 1975 and 1976 winning the championship in both years. From 1976 very little is known. At some point a set of very wide Group 5 wheel arches and wider wheels were fitted to the car but the car did very little from this point until it was re-discovered prior to our restoration. It was decided that the car had to return to its Group 2 CSL specification as campaigned by Tuisku Urpiala in Finland as 99% of that car was present and intact. Almost all of the original 2800CS components that would have been with the car when Alpina ran the car were long gone. One of the greatest discoveries in this project was when we removed the ultra wide wheel arches and discovered the original Group 2 arches still intact underneath. The body shell carried so much of its history in the layers of paint and the various modifications that we decided that it could not be over-restored. We made only the necessary repairs and left the scars of its history and the remaining traces of original paint intact. The assembly of the car has gone in much the same way the owner Ben Gulliver wanted to keep as much of the cars history intact so where ever possible original parts were left in their original finish with only a clean and a service before being reinstalled. This BMW is not yet complete and we have yet to tackle the fuel injected engine. Over the coming months we will continue the build which will include a new roll cage to meet current regulations along with the necessary safety items to enable this historic BMW to once again return to the circuit.