ALPINA XB7 Debut, E46 M3 Touring, and the Best Cars and Coffee of the Year

There are few locations in America the place a BMW feels extra at dwelling than Amelia Island. The setting helps — salt air, outdated oaks, a golf course that’s been internet hosting nice automobiles for many years. And yearly, the BMW group solutions that decision in power. The 2026 Amelia Island Concours d’Magnificence was no exception. From a world debut on the present area to a sprawling Vehicles and Espresso that reminded everybody why BMW possession is much less a pastime and extra a lifestyle.

BMW ALPINA XB7 Restricted Version: 120 for America

The massive information this yr got here from ALPINA. The model used Amelia Island to debut the XB7 Limited Edition for the North American market — simply 120 items allotted for america. It’s individually numbered, hand-built within the ALPINA custom, and brings the total limited-edition remedy to what’s already one of many extra quietly spectacular machines cash should buy.

Vehicles and Espresso: The Vehicles

Fifty BMW house owners acquired their automobiles onto the sphere for Sunday morning’s Vehicles and Espresso, and the unfold was a very good one.The E30 M3 wants no introduction at this level. Each instance that exhibits up at a present like it is a survivor, and this one was no totally different — boxy, purposeful, precisely proper. The E36 M3s have been there too, nonetheless combating for the respect they deserve. The E46 M3s made a robust exhibiting, and for good motive: the S54, the chassis, the steering — all of it nonetheless holds up.

However the automotive that stopped many individuals of their tracks was an E46 M3 Touring with an SMG gearbox. A wagon. With M energy. It shouldn’t exist, and but there it was, most likely probably the most photographed automotive of the complete weekend. No complaints from anybody.

On the newer finish, a number of G80 M3s have been on show, together with the 50 Jahre Version in Interlagos Blue — considered one of 500 constructed for America. Standing subsequent to an E30 M3, the colour dialog virtually writes itself.

The 2002s, the Baur, and an Authentic ALPINA 02

Any BMW gathering price attending has a strong 2002 contingent, and Amelia delivered. A number of examples have been on show, together with a clear one from the group at Precision Sport Industries, who know their manner round an early BMW. There was additionally a BMW 2002 Baur Cabriolet on the sphere — the Targa-roofed coachbuilt model from Stuttgart that BMW by no means formally supplied as a convertible. They don’t come up typically, and this one was in correct order.

The early-car spotlight, although, was an authentic ALPINA 02. Twin carburetors, Buchloe provenance, a direct line to the place the entire ALPINA story started. Standing a couple of ft away from the brand new XB7 Restricted Version, the distinction — and the continuity — was onerous to overlook.

The Neighborhood

What Amelia Island delivers yearly, past the debuts and the garden and the trophies, is a reminder of why this group works. BMW individuals have a tendency to speak to one another. They share what they know, assist with restorations, argue about the correct period with real enthusiasm moderately than snobbery. The particular person with a well-used E36 will get the identical welcome because the particular person with a concours-quality E9.

BMWBLOG has been coming to Amelia Island for years, and that half hasn’t modified. And subsequent March, the BMW group can be again as soon as once more on the grass at Amelia Island. It’s simply second dwelling now.