Galpin Motors Partners with bb-Auto
The 50-year-old German design firm is known for early adoption of technology & styling...
Galpin Motors has revealed a partnership with German design firm bb-Auto, founded 50 years ago in Frankfurt, Germany, by the husband-and-wife team of Rainer and Kathrin Buchmann.
Galpin holds exclusive rights to bb-Auto in North America and plans to bring the legendary brand to the United States by delivering new and classic Porsches and other European brands, according to officials. The partners will celebrate the U.S. launch of bb during this year’s Monterey Car Week when Porsche Santa Clarita (a Galpin dealership) shows off its first bb Porsche at the 2024 Porsche Restoration Challenge at the Werks Reunion.
“Galpin started customizing Fords in 1952, so it runs in my blood,” said President and CEO of Galpin Motors Beau Boeckmann. “I’m thrilled to bring together the pioneering spirit and innovation that my family and bb share and offer our customers an exclusive opportunity to create their dream vintage or new Porsche with bb.”
“The future is tomorrow,” said Rainer Buchmann. “This partnership marks an exciting new chapter for Kathrin and me. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner with Galpin and Beau Boeckmann, the other bb in our ever-growing family! In the United States, ‘bb’ will stand for Buchmann and Boeckmann. bb-Auto was founded in 1974 by Rainer and Kathrin Buchmann, with bb standing for Buchmann + Buchmann.“
“My father was a famous tailor around Germany,” explains Buchmann. “I saw all of his customers and how they loved to have something custom-made. I believe there is a part in all of us that wants to have something special and unique.”
bb was ahead of the automotive industry with its unique styling, Silicon Valley-inspired tech and runway-fashion-infused marketing campaigns, the company noted. From the first digital dash displays, multi-control steering wheels, remote door locks, backup parking sensors, electric steel hardtops, flatnose conversions and pioneering the use of pearlescent paints, the list of bb firsts is a story that few in the United States have heard.
“When I learned about bb, I was blown away at how cool this brand was and wondered how I had never heard of it,” said Boeckmann. “It felt oddly familiar, as if Galpin were in Germany. It’s what we would have been doing.”
Boeckmann’s family-owned Galpin Motors opened Porsche Santa Clarita in March of 2020. It is the only Porsche dealership in the world to have its very own museum, the Wunderground, as well as its own restaurant, Boxxenstopp and a Porsche Design boutique.
