Not so in North America. There the name is known to only a few hardcore types with the persistence to import one through the back door. So this new version of the Z8 roadster - badged BMW Alpina Roadster V8 rather than Alpina Z8, you'll note - is the first Alpina-badged BMW to be officially marketed in this huge territory.

Some 450 (from a limited edition of 555) Alpina V8 Roadsters will be sold through US BMW dealers, where it takes over from the six-speed manual during this, the Z8's run-out year. It will be sold for a modest 00 more than the factory manual version - and with an Alpina warranty. It is a major production commitment for this tiny company where 160 or so mullet-haired craftsmen build just 850 labour-intensive cars a year.

It's a curious car in many ways, this first Alpina that's actually less aggressive than the BMW it's based on. Cleverly, BMW is soaking-up any residual buyers who liked the retro looks of the Z8 but couldn't handle the manual shift. By giving it an Alpina badge they bestow on the auto a different but credible identity rather than relegating it to the realms of sad slush-box shopping version for rich Bel Air housewives.

In Europe - where the Alpina is already sold out - regular Z8 production will finish at the end of next summer.

The production process of the Alpina variant is convoluted. Alpina builds the engine at Buchloe in upper Bavaria, then sends it to BMW in Munich where it's mated with the Alpina-spec ZF transmission and fitted to the rigid spaceframe Z8 chassis and clothed in the 'design masterpiece' (Alpina's words) roadster body. For final finishing - which takes five to seven days - the car is returned to Alpina and then back to BMW for shipping.

Previous Alpina BMWs have majored in well-mannered top-end aggression, but this car is about lazy power for North American 'stop-light culture'. Replacing the standard 394bhp 'M' motor is a stroked, 4.8-litre version of the X5's V8, producing 381bhp. Peak power and torque arrive at lower rpm to suit the five-speed automatic gearbox, also X5-sourced but with beefed-up Alpina internals and new software, plus Alpina developed Switch-Tronic shift-buttons on the steering wheel. There was talk of using the V12 but that would have left no room for the steering rack which, obviously, wouldn't have done the handling much good.
Visually, apart from the badging, the only real differences are the 20-spoke, 20in Alpina alloys. Inside, the Nappa leather is softer than you'll find in the standard Z8 and comes with special piping and Alpina logos.

The shiny black dash-top that reflects annoyingly on the windscreen in the standard Z8 has been sensibly replaced with matching leather. There's a chassis plaque between the seats, a transmission display above the steering column and blue instrument lighting but otherwise the cabin is recognisably Z8.

We drove a long circuit around the streaming wet country roads that surround the Alpina factory chasing Andreas Bovensiepen - son of the jovial wine-trading founder Burkard - in an Alpina B10 5-series which he put expertly and dramatically sideways at every possible opportunity.

The screaming sophistication of the M-Series V8 is swapped for an urgent mid-Atlantic woofle, a sound that accurately captures the cascading wall of torque that sweeps the Alpina along whether you're playing tunes on the Switch-Tronic or just ambling in 'Drive'.

This is one of the world's more potent automatics and makes the traction control work hard for its living in the lower gears - the tail will twitch more than briefly when provoked in the wet before the DSC gets its act together. And it dispatches lesser vehicles at the twitch of a toe while remaining peaceful and civilised if you want it to.

There's no noticeable loss of performance compared with the manual Z8; if anything, the crisply responsive Switch-Tronic makes the colossal urge more accessible as the six-speed isn't such an outstandingly tactile gearchange that you particularly miss it.

Alpina say its car rides better than the regular Z8 thanks to softer sidewalls on the monster tyres and less rebound in the initial damping. It certainly felt supple and composed, less busy and fidgety than the straight Z8. In the wet in slow, tight corners I fancied it understeered more than the standard car, but otherwise its handling was pretty much the same; in other words, OK up to eight tenths, but nothing special.

All eight Alpina Roadster V8s earmarked for the UK are sold. The fact that the highest profile British customer is bland teeny-crooner Ronan Keating is probably a good reason for not wanting one anyway.