A superb
and rare photo of the Alpine
Renault A110 in the paddock of Le Mans!
Alpine was a French manufacturer of racing and sports cars that
used rear mounted Renault engines. Jean Rédélé, the founder of Alpine, was
originally a garage proprietor in the French town of Dieppe. He began to achieve considerable
competition success in one of the few French cars produced just after World War
2. Using Renault 4CVs, Rédélé gained class wins in a number of major events,
including the Mille Miglia and Coupe des Alpes. As his experience with the
little 4CV built up, he incorporated many modifications, including for example,
special 5 speed gear boxes replacing the original 3 speed unit. To provide a
lighter car he built a number of special versions with lightweight aluminium
bodies: he drove in these at Le Mans
and Sebring with some success in the early 1950s. Encouraged by the development
of these cars and consequent customer demand, he founded the Société Anonyme
des Automobiles Alpine in 1954. The firm was named Alpine after his Coupe des
Alpes successes. He did not realise that over in England the previous year, Sunbeam
Car Company had introduced a sports coupe derived from the Sunbeam Talbot and
called the Sunbeam Alpine. This naming problem was to cause problems for Alpine
throughout its history. In 1955, he worked with the Chappe brothers to be
amongst the pioneers of auto glass fibre construction and produced a small
coupe, based on 4CV mechanicals and called the Alpine A106. It used the
platform chassis of the original Renault 4CV. The A106 achieved a number of
successes through the 1950s and was joined by a low and stylish cabriolet.
Styling for this car was contracted to the Italian designer Michelotti. Under
the glassfibre body was a very stiff chassis based on a central tubular
backbone which was to be the hallmark of all Alpines built. Alpine then took
the Michelotti cabriolet design and developed a 2+2 closed coupe (or
'berlinette') body for it: this became the A108, built between 1958 and 1963.
By now the car's mechanicals were beginning to show their age. Alpine were
already working closely with Renault and when the Renault R8 saloon was
introduced in 1962, Alpine redeveloped their chassis and made a number of minor
body changes to allow the use of R8 mechanicals. This new car was the A110
Berlinette Tour de France, named after a successful run with the Alpine A108 in
the 1962 event. Starting with a 956 cc engine of 51 bhp (38 kW), the
same chassis and body developed with relatively minor changes over the years to
the stage where, by 1974, the little car was handling 1800 cc engines
developing 180 bhp (134 kW)+. With a competition weight for the car
of around 620 kg (1367 lb), the performance was excellent. Alpine
achieved increasing success in rallying, and by 1968 had been allocated the
whole Renault competition budget. The close collaboration allowed Alpines to be
sold and maintained in France
by normal Renault dealerships. Real top level success started in 1968 with
outright wins in the Coupe des Alpes and other international events. By this
time the competition cars were fitted with 1440 cc engines derived from the
Renault R8 Gordini. Competition successes became numerous, helped since Alpine
were the first company fully to exploit the competition parts homologation
rules. In 1971 Alpine achieved a 1-2-3
finish in the Monte Carlo rally, using cars
with engines derived from the Renault R16. In 1973, they repeated the 1-2-3 Monte
Carlo result and went on to win the World Rally Championship
outright, beating Porsche, Lancia and Ford. During all of this time, production
of the Alpine A110 increased and manufacturing deals were struck for A110s and
A108s with factories in a number of other countries including Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Bulgaria. 1973 brought the international petrol crisis, which had
profound effects on many specialist car manufacturers worldwide. From a total
Alpine production of 1421 in 1972, the numbers of cars sold dropped to 957 in
1974 and the company was bailed out via a takeover by Renault. Alpine's
problems had been compounded by the need for them to develop a replacement for
the A110 and launch the car just when European petrol prices leapt through the
roof. Through the 1970s Alpine continued to campaign the A110, and later the
Alpine A310 replacement car. However, to compete with Alpine's success, other
manufacturers developed increasingly special cars, notably the Lancia Stratos
which was based closely on the A110's size and rear engined concept, though
incorporating a Ferrari engine. Alpine's own cars, still based on the 1962
design and using a surprising number of production parts, became increasingly
uncompetitive. In 1974 Alpine built a series of factory racing Renault 17
Gordinis (one driven by Jean-Luc Thérier) that won the Press on Regardless
World Rally Championship round in Michigan, USA. In fact, having achieved the
rally championship, and with Renault money now fully behind them, Alpine had
set their sights on a new target. The next aim was to win at Le Mans. Renault had also taken over the
Gordini tuning firm and merged the two to form Renault Sport. A number of
increasingly successful sports racing cars appeared, culminating in the 1978 Le Mans win with the
Renault Alpine A442B. This was fitted with a turbo-charged engine; Alpine had
been the first company to run in and win an international rally with a turbo
car as far back as 1972 when Jean-Luc Thérier took a specially modified A110 to
victory on the Critérium des Cévennes. Alpine Renault continued to develop
their range of models all through the 1980s. The A310 was the next modern
interpretation of the A110. The Alpine A310 was a sports car with a
rear-mounted engine and was initially powered by a four cylinder 1.6 L sourced
Renault 17 TS/Gordini engine. In 1976 the A310 was restyled by Robert Opron and
fitted with the more powerful and newly-developed V6 PRV engine. The 2.6 L
motor was modified by Alpine with a four-speed manual gearbox. Later they would
use a Five-speed manual gearbox and with the group 4 model get a higher tune
with more cubic capacity and 3 twin barrel webbers carburetors. After the A310
Alpine transformed into the new Alpine GTA
range produced from plastic and polyester components, commencing with normally
aspirated PRV V6 engines. In 1985 the V6 Turbo was introduced to complete the
range. This car was faster and more powerful than the normally aspirated
version. In 1986 polyester parts were cut for the first time by robot using a
high pressure (3500 bar) water jet, 0.15 mm (0.01 in) in diameter at
three times the speed of sound. In the same year the American specification V6
Turbo was developed. In 1987 fitment of anti-pollution systems allowed the V6
Turbo to be distributed to Switzerland,
Germany,
Austria
and the Netherlands.
1989 saw the launch of the limited edition GTA
Mille Miles to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Alpine. Production was limited
to 100 cars, all fitted with ABS
braking, polished wheels, special leather interior and paintwork. This version
was not available in RHD. 1990 saw
the launch of the special edition wide bodied GTA
Le Mans. The car wore polyester wheel arch extensions with a one piece front.
Wheels were 3 piece BBS style, 16" front & 17" rear. Otherwise
identical mechanically to the V6 Turbo, the engine was fitted with a catalytic
converter and power was reduced to 185 bhp (138 kW). This model was
available in the UK
and RHD versions carried a
numbered plaque on the dashboard. The Le
Mans is the most collectable and valuable GTA derivative. These were available from Renault
dealers in the UK and the country's motoring press are belatedly recognising
the GTA series as the 'great
unsung supercar of the 1980s' The Alpine A610 was launched in 1991, it was
re-styled inside and out but was still recognisable as a GTA derivative. The chassis structure was
extensively reworked but the central box principal remained the same. The front
was completely re-designed The interior was also greatly improved.
Air-conditioning and power steering were fitted as standard. The total
production run for A610s derivatives was 818 vehicles 67 RHD and 751 LHD. After production of the A610
ended, the Alpine factory in Dieppe
produced the Renaultsport Spider and a new era was to begin. The last Alpine,
an A610, rolled off the Dieppe
line late in 1994, Renault abandoning the Alpine name. This was always a
problem in the UK
market. Alpines could not be sold in the UK under their own name because
Sunbeam owned the trade mark (because of the mid-50s Sunbeam Alpine Mk I). In
the 1970s, for example Dieppe
were building modified Renault R5s for the world wide market. The rest of the
world knew them as R5 Alpines but in the UK they had to be renamed to R5
Gordini. Strangely enough with the numerous company takeovers that have
occurred, it is another French company, PSA
(Peugot/Talbot/Citroën) who now own the British Alpine trademark. The Alpine
factory in Dieppe
continues to expand; in the 1980s they built the special R5 Turbo cars,
following the rear engined formula they have always used. They built all Clio
Williams and RenaultSport Spiders. The factory proudly put its Alpine badges on
the built early batches of the mid engined Clio series one Clio V6. The Clio
Series 2 was also assembled there with more recent RenaultSport Clio 172 and
RenaultSport Clio 182s. The Dieppe
factory is known as the producer of RenaultSport models that are sold
worldwide. This was originally the "Alpine" factory that Renault
gained when they acquired the brand in 1973. Some of the Renault Sport models
produced in Dieppe
are currently the Mégane Renault Sport, Clio Renault Sport and the new Mégane
Renault Sport dCi is to be built on Renault’s Dieppe assembly line. All the RenaultSport
track-, tarmac- and gravel-racing Meganes and Clios are also made in the Dieppe factory. In France there is
a large network of Alpine enthusiasts clubs. Clubs exist in many countries
including the UK,
USA,
Australia,
Japan.
This is a very nice and very rare non period photo
that reflects a wonderful era of Alpine ‘s automotive history in a
wonderful way. This is your rare chance
to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format
of ca. 8" x 9" (ca. 20 x 24 cm).
It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.