The man behind some of the world's fastest BMWs

"Sometimes even I have to admit 600Nm is too much," says Andreas Bovensiepen while grabbing an armful of lock as his B4 coupe comes on boost, sending its tail arcing wide.

"This is my personal car and it only has an open diff. In these conditions, it's a bit much", admits the Alpina CEO, pointing to the 5cm-deep snow as he deftly drifts his company car.

We approach a right-hander. Andy grabs the handbrake to ensure we're fully sideways before the apex.

Meanwhile, up the road, a rosy-faced pensioner slowly shovels snow while standing unwittingly in the path of the fast-moving black B4.

Things get uncomfortably close, but neither flinch as Andy casually unwinds some lock at the last minute to safely pass his neighbour.

Another grab of the handbrake and we arrive at a small shed on the very edge of the Alpina estate located in Buchloe, an hour's drive west of Munich.

If you're not familiar with Alpina, half a century ago if you were here standing right here, you'd find a typewriter factory.

Today, you find a small, fiercely independent car-maker that's famous for creating some of the fastest BMWs of all time.

Of course, when we say 'car-maker', we mean it. The time, work and engineering - not to mention millions of dollars of investment -- that goes into each and every Alpina product transcends traditional aftermarket tuner offerings.

True enthusias
Andreas 'Andy' Bovensiepen, son of Alpina's founder and owner Burkard, is keen to show me one of his favourite Alpinas of all time.

Pulling back some shutters, Andy ushers me into a warm workshop where I'm presented to not one but two Alpina B6 GT3 race cars.

If I'm brutally honest, Bangle's 6 Series has never been a favourite and even with huge wings it certainly doesn't look like a natural race car.

Luckily, I'm not on Alpina's payroll because, back in 2003, when the E 63 coupe was unveiled, Andy instantly spotted its potential.

"It has the proportions of a true race car, a shape where we can really optimise the aero," he says.

Of course, it might have helped that Andy's intuition came from racing DTM touring cars and competing at the Le Mans 24 Hour.

Knowing the BMW parts catalogue intimately, Andy set about making a tough, cost-effective race car that managed to exploit all the GT3 rules.

"We had to take a lot of weight out of it -- maybe almost 500kg -- but by the time we had finished with it nothing was faster through the corners. Sure, we lost a bit on the straights, but in the curves we were fast."

So fast that two years after it was launched it won the GT3 championship outright in 2011, beating far better-financed teams from Ferrari and Aston Martin.

Proud history
Punching above its weight is a common thread to the Alpina story.

Father Burkard (who actually built his house in the factory grounds less than 20 metres from his office and desk) founded the business back in 1965 after he realised owners of BMW 1500 sedans would pay good money for his twin-carb conversion.

From then on Alpina has worked closely with the German car-maker and today the small performance vehicle brand is so integrated into BMW, you would swear it was factory-owned and not the independent entity it is.

In fact, some five per cent of Alpina's turnover comes directly from its consultancy work for BMW. This ranges from verifying emissions for around 250 vehicles per year to doing chassis tunes on models you would never have imagined, like the 2 Series Active Tourer people-mover.

And himself spent more than seven years working for BMW in R&D.

Today, Alpina's 250 employees produce a maximum of 1700 cars per year.

Part of the reason volumes are so low are the labour-intensive techniques used to produce each and every car.

Alpinas are now 80 per cent assembled on BMW's own production lines but, even then, when each car is delivered to the car-maker's unassuming HQ smack bang in a quiet residential part of town, each car then needs up to a month to finish.

The soft leather steering wheel, for example, takes a full day to hand stitch, while a bespoke leather interior colour-matched to whatever takes your fancy could take weeks.

On site is a sophisticated R&D centre that's responsible for every part of an Alpina's development, from delicate chassis fine-turning to engine development and, in more recent years developing, developing the software to manage its vehicle's all-wheel drive, transmission and stability control systems.

If that's not enough, the company's HQ also supports BMW's motorsport division, building its race engines for the current MINI Paris Dakar racers.

A new chapter
With plans to expand production to more than 2000 cars and enter new markets, Alpina seems to be at a pivotal point in its history, although the company has always embraced new technology.

Alpina started turbocharging its cars decade ago before BMW M turned its back on high-revving naturally aspirated engines.

With electric and hybrid being the two big buzzwords in the industry, it's the latter that has peaked the Alpina CEO's interest, prompting him and his engineers to explore modifying the i8 hybrid supercar.

"The i8 looks like it has 600hp but it's just not possible to get 600hp out of it," admits Andy, revealing that his team explored the package but couldn't fit anything larger than a four-cylinder engine into the tightly packed engine bay.

"The i8's 2+2 layout means it's simply not possible to add a longitudinal engine. That means there's no space for a V8 or inline six-cylinder and our customers expect six or eight cylinders."

Since then, Andy admits Alpina has also investigated plug-in hybrids but came away frustrated by their real-world range, packaging compromises and weight penalty.

"Despite what I read, I think diesel still has a good future with a 2.0-litre or 3.0-litre capacity. Nothing can currently offer the ability to cover 500 miles (800km) on a single tank of fuel without any compromise for performance or trunk space", says the Alpina boss.

As well as insisting diesels will survive a little longer, Andy predicts the petrol engine will live on past 2040.

"When quartz watches first came out everybody thought it was the end of mechanical time pieces," he says.

"After all, a quartz watch is more accurate. Of course, what happened in reality is everyone who likes (and can afford) a Swiss precision mechanical watch carried on buying them.

"So, in the future maybe they'll be a niche bunch of customers who have an electric car but still enjoy a real engine and like the sound."

What's next
Speaking of niches, unlike the executives of mainstream car-makers, Andy was happy to talk about what's coming in the future.

He admits he's excited to see how the next Z4 will shape up, but sadly says there are no plans to create a sequel for the Z4-based Roadster S it sold from 2003.

Andy: "My heart says yes but my head says it's better to invest our money into other segments like SUVs."

Instead, there's likely to be another SUV to accompany its current XD3 that will be based around the forthcoming X7 flagship.

Back in the late 1980s Alpina even explored coachbuilding. Ital Design approached it to develop a production version of its Alpina V12-powered Nazca.

If anything, Andy says it makes less sense today than it did back then as both environmental and safety requirements dictate that, to cover costs, you need at least 50-100 customers -- something not easy to find at a price point over $350,000.

Not going anywhere
The good news is Alpina seems unlikely ever to lose its renegade spirit of carving out the unlikeliest niches. Andy's father once bet BMW management he could squeeze a V8 into its E36 -- and won his wager when the firm created the B8.

When asked if a similar feat could be attempted with a BMW M2, Andy smiled before admitting defeat and confessing the exhaust system of BMW's current turbocharged V8 would require mounting the engine far too forward in the engine bay, leading to 58/42 front/rear weight distribution and, in Andy's words, "ugly handling".

What will be music to performance car enthusiasts' ears is the small Bavarian car-maker is ready and willing to leap into action if BMW M ever give up on the manual transmission.

"If BMW M stopped making manuals it would certainly create an interesting opportunity," said the Alpina boss, adding: "Although for the current B4 we have 660Nm of torque and there's no manual gearbox in existence that can cope. We would have to reduce the torque."

Outside, as the snow continues to tumble down, perhaps that's no bad thing on a day like this.