Retrospective: Alpine - France’s Porsche.
Lost somewhere in the annuls of automotive history are some truly storied brands. Some are still around and largely ignored, whereas others have died out and faded away and out of the collective memory of drivers everywhere. This series aims to take a look at a few of these such brands and talk about how they started, how they ran, and why they failed.
First up on the block is the largely forgotten Alpine marque, hailing from France. Alpine was founded in 1955 by Jean Rédélé, a garage owner in Dieppe, France. He got his start post-WWII campaigning modified Renault 4CV’s in various racing events, including the Mille Miglia as well as various other circuit races and rallies. Rédélé’s 4CV’s offered significant improvements over the factory versions: more powerful engines, 5-speed close-ratio gearboxes instead of 3-speeds, and reduced weight from custom-made aluminum body panels. His continued experience with the 4CV lead to class wins at the Mille Miglia as well as the Coupe des Alpes, which is where the brand’s name is derived from.
As Jean’s list of victories grew, his customer base grew. Finally, he decided it was time to create a (partially) bespoke car. Thus the Alpine A106 was born. The 106 was based on the 4CV but used a fiberglass body (styled by Michelloti) on top of a “central tubular backbone.” This light, stiff sports car had a considerable power-to-weight advantage over the Renault 4 it was based on. the 106 evolved into the 108, and Alpine’s racing success continued.
The car that really established Alpine, though, was the A110. The 110 was an evolution of the 108, but based on the newly introduced Renault R8. In original form it used the 956cc four-cylinder from the R8 which made 51 horsepower; by the end of the A110’s production cycle it was producing 180 horsepower from an 1800cc high-compression 4-cylinder.
The A110’s were extremely competitive machines. Since they only weighed about 1300 lbs dripping wet, acceleration from the small powerplant was impressive, and roadholding abilities were up to par thanks to the light weight and stiff chassis. The A110 won the Coupe des Alpes in 1968, and A110’s finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the Monte Carlo rally in 1971 and again in 1973. By then they were using an evolution of the Renault R18 engine, and street cars were powered by a 1440cc version of the engine in the R8 Gordini.
The A110’s small size, low-slung stance, balance, and reliability provided by the large number of production-car parts used allowed it great success in rallying.
As the 70’s pressed on, though, Alpine ran into trouble. The A110 was near the end of it’s life cycle and needed to be replaced, but the fuel shortage in Europe meant that sales of sports car tanked, and there wasn’t enough money to really develop a new car. Also, the competition was getting ever more fierce, with bespoke car cars designed to take on the A110 rather than production-derived (and compromised) race cars. The Lancia Stratos was similar in concept to the A110, being about the same dimensions, but used a much more powerful 6-cylinder Ferrari engine mounted amidships for better weight distribution and a superior power/weight ratio. The Stratos produced 190 horsepower in choked-down road trim; the racing versions of the A110 only made 180 on a good day.
So in 1974, Renault took over Alpine and development on the A110’s replacement continued. the end result was the Alpine-Renault A310, which is remarkably different looking but remarkably mechanically similar to the A110. It used the same glassfibre-over-steel-frame construction with a stiff backbone. Power originally came from the Gordini-tuned 17TS 4-cylinder engine, making 125 horsepower, still rear-mounted.
By then, however, Renault had shifted Alpine’s focus from rally competition to higher forms of motorsport. Race-prepped Renaults were the order of the day for Rally work, like the mid-engined 5 Turbo, and Alpines were primarily road-going sports cars, as well as track-based race cars. In 1978, the Renault-Alpine A442B won the 24hr endurance race at LeMans with a turbocharged engine.
Meanwhile, the A310 continued to evolve. The bodywork was restyled Robert Opron, and the engine was upgraded to a 2.7L “PRV” V6. This V6 (jointly designed by Peugeot, Renault and Volvo) produced 149 horsepower and enabled the A310 to reach a top speed of 137mph, putting it in competition with much more expensive sports cars, such as the Porsche 911. There was a special edition A310 built to commemorate Alpine’s success in Group A racing, called the GT Pack. It had flared-out fenders, and an enlarged version of the PRV V6 punched out to 2.9L. This engine made 193bhp breathing through triple Weber carbs. With the extra 50 or so horsepower and more stable handling, the GT Pack A310 was a force to be reckoned with back in it’s day. Production ended in 1984, with 9,500 or so units built since 1971, making it a pretty uncommon vehicle.
After the A310, Alpine’s road cars started to become very interesting. The A310 evolved into the GTA in 1985, which had more modern aerodynamic lines and a nicer interior. While the focus shifted to more of a grand-tourer, the GTA was still a rapid car by most standards. the PRV V6 had been refined a bit since it first came out, and was making 160 horsepower out of 2.5L. Things got really interesting in 1986 with the launch of the GTA Turbo. The standard 2.5L PRV was turbocharged using a single Garrett T3, and power jumped to 200 horsepower and 210 lb-ft. Combined with a 2600lb kerb weight and a slippery 0.30 Coefficient of drag, the GTA Turbo topped out at 155 miles an hour, and could reach 60 from a standstill in an alarming 6.3 seconds, which was actually quicker than the 911 Turbo of the time. While the GTA was still rear-engined and somewhat tailhappy, the suspension had been refined to make the car somewhat more predictable. The car was rather talented at covering great distances in a short period of time.
However, all was not well. The GTA never sold as well as the A310, which never sold nearly as well as the A110. While it was a refined and powerful grand tourer, this was the 80’s. And when people bought a sports car, they wanted a keyfob and a name that would impress ladies at the bar, and business partners at the firm. The Renault symbol on the key was perhaps the biggest thing that held Alpine back; I mean, the brand’s name was Alpine-Renault. So Alpines suffered from the same image problem as the Porsche 914 - which was marketed as the Volkswagen-Porsche in Europe. They were great cars, but they were expensive sports cars brought down by sharing a common name and some common parts.
By the 1980’s the Dieppe plant was being used for more than Alpines, which were quickly becoming very low-volume in comparison to the rapidly-expanding market. The ridiculous R5 Turbo, a mid-engine turbocharged RWD version of Renault’s rather dull 5 hatchback, was produced at the Dieppe plant. This rear-engined pocket rocket might as well have had an Alpine badge; rear engined and rear wheel drive was not exactly a Renault hallmark at that point.
With sales tumbling and demand fading away, Alpine went out with one last fantastic gasp. The A610 was the replacement for the GTA. While it looked remarkably similar, there were numerous mechanical changes that made the 610 a much more hard-edged performance car than the GTA ever was. The PRV V6, by now certainly on it’s last legs, was punched out to a full 3.0L. All 610’s were turbocharged as standard, and the bigger engine and more modern engine management allowed more boost and more power. The 610’s engine in early trim developed 250 horsepower and 258 ft-lbs, enabling the Alpine to crack the six-second barrier to sixty and top out at a stonking 165 miles an hour. Changes to the body included the adoption of pop-up headlights, much like the US-market GTA’s, and a few detail changes to make the car look more modern.
The engine was updated in 1993 with boost increased to a full 1.0 bar (14.7psi) and power jumped up to 280bhp, bringing the top speed north of 170mph and the 0-60 time dropped to the mid-fives. The A610 was an accomplished, uncommon, well-designed sports car that was just simply roundly ignored. Sales were even worse than the GTA’s, thanks to a market shift away from sports cars and “conspicuous consumption” in general in Europe. While brands like Porsche and Ferrari soldiered on with (questionably) good products, Alpine had long ago lost the cache required to get rich people to part with large sums of their money.
The last A610 rolled off the production line in Dieppe, France in 1995, where the first Alpine had emerged 40 years ealier. France’s Porsche was no more, as the A610 was to be the last Alpine-branded automobile produced.
Alpine never really disappeared, though. The plant in Dieppe became the center for Renaultsport, the motorsports branch of the French manufacturer. The next year, production of the impossibly exotic Renaultsport Spider, basically a go-kart with headlights and a road-tax disc, began at the Dieppe plant. The spirit of Alpine lives on today in the multitude of Renaultsport models produced (at least partially) at the Dieppe plant - Renaultsport Meganes and Clios, cars with souls. I’m sure Jean (who passed away in August 2007) would be proud.
