Racing car manufacturer
Société des Automobiles Alpine SAS, commonly known as Alpine (, ), is a French manufacturer of sports cars and racing cars established in 1955. The Alpine car marque was created in 1954.
Jean Rédélé, the founder of Alpine, was originally a Dieppe garage proprietor who began to achieve success in motorsport with one of the few French cars that were produced just after the Second World War, the Renault 4CV. The company has been closely related to Renault through its history, and was bought by it in 1973.
The Alpine competition department merged into Renault Sport in 1976 and the production of Alpine-badged models ceased in 1995. The Alpine brand was relaunched with the 2017 introduction of the new Alpine A110. In January 2021, as part of a company revamp, Renault announced that Renault Sport was again merged into Alpine to form an Alpine business unit.
In 2024, Alpine started producing electric vehicles by rolling out the Alpine A290. As part of its global expansion, Alpine in 2023 announced plans to enter the North American market in 2027 with a mid-size electric crossover and a large electric SUV.
History.
Early days.
Using Renault 4CVs, Jean Rédélé gained class wins in a number of major events, including the Mille Miglia and Coupe des Alpes. As his experience with the 4CV grew, he incorporated many modifications, including special five-speed gearboxes replacing the original three-speed unit. To provide a lighter car, he built a number of special versions with lightweight aluminium bodies, driving them at Le Mans and Sebring with some success in the early 1950s.
Encouraged by the development of these cars and subsequent customer demand, he created the Alpine brand in 1954. It was named "Alpine" after his "Coupe des Alpes" successes. He did not realise that in England the previous year, Sunbeam had introduced a sports coupe derived from the Sunbeam Talbot, named the "Sunbeam Alpine". This naming issue caused problems for Alpine throughout its history.
In 1955, Rédélé worked with the carrosserie Chappe et Gessalin. They were amongst the pioneers of auto glassfibre construction and produced a small coupe, based on 4CV mechanicals, called the Alpine A106. The A106 achieved a number of successes through the 1950s and was joined by a low and stylish cabriolet. Styling for the car was contracted to the Italian designer Giovanni 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.
Alpine then took the Michelotti cabriolet design and developed a 2+2 closed coupe (or 'berlinette') body for it: this became the Alpine A108, now featuring the Dauphine Gordini 845 cc engine, which on later models was bored out to give a capacity of 904 cc or (subsequently) 998 cc. The A108 was built between 1958 and 1963.
1960s.
In 1962, the A108 began to be produced also in Brazil, by Willys-Overland, being renamed the Willys Interlagos (berlineta, coupé and convertible).
By now the car's mechanicals were beginning to show their age in Europe. Alpine was 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 , the same chassis and body developed with relatively minor changes over the years to the stage where, by 1974, the little cars were handling 1800 cc engines developing +. With a competition weight for the car of around , the performance was excellent.
Alpine achieved increasing success in rallying, and by 1968 had been allocated the whole Renault competition budget. This close collaboration with Renault 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 by the fact that Alpine was the first company fully to exploit the competitions homologation rules.
1970s.
In 1971, Alpines finished first, second and fourth in the Monte Carlo rally, using cars with engines derived from the Renault 16. In 1973, the newer A110 1800 finished first, second, third, and fifth and went on to win the World Rally Championship outright, beating Porsche, Lancia and Ford. During 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.
With 1973 came 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 alongside drastically increasing European petrol prices.
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, US.
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 Thérier took a specially modified A110 to victory on the "Critérium des Cévennes".
1971 also saw Alpine begin construction of open-wheel racing cars. Initially in Formula Three, they were building Formula Two cars within a year as well. However, without a competitive Renault Formula Two engine available, the F2 cars could neither be known as Renaults nor Alpines while powered by Ford-Cosworth and BMW engines and were labelled Elf 2 and later Elf 2J. A Renault 2.0 litre engine arrived in time for Jean-Pierre Jabouille to win the European Formula 2 Championship in 1976. By this time, Alpine with Jabouille driving had built a Formula One car as a testing mule which lead directly to their entry into the Formula One World Championship in 1977. A second European Formula 2 championship followed with René Arnoux in 1977 with the customer Martini team, before Alpine sold the F2 operation to Willi Kauhsen to concentrate on the Le Mans and Formula One programs.
1980s.
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 Weber carburetors.
After the A310, Alpine transformed into the new Renault 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, in diameter at three times the speed of sound. In the same year the American specification V6 turbo was developed.
In 1987 the installation 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 Alpine's 35th anniversary. Production was limited to 100 cars, all fitted with ABS braking, polished wheels, special leather interior and paintwork. This version was not available in right hand drive.
1990s.
1990 saw the launch of the special edition wide-bodied GTA "Le Mans". Otherwise mechanically identical to the V6 Turbo, the engine was fitted with a catalytic converter and power was reduced to . This model was available in the UK and right hand drive versions carried a numbered plaque on the dashboard. The Le Mans is the most collectable and valuable GTA derivative, since only 325 were made (299 LHD and 26 RHD). 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 right hand drive and 751 left hand drive. After production of the A610 ended, the Alpine factory in Dieppe produced the Renault Sport Spider and a new era was to begin.
The last Alpine, an A610, rolled off the Dieppe line on 7 April 1995, with 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 5s for the worldwide market. The rest of the world knew them as R5 Alpines but in the UK they had to be renamed to R5 Gordini. After numerous company takeovers, the multinational Stellantis own the British "Alpine" trademark as of January 2021.
The Alpine factory in Dieppe continued to expand; in the 1980s they built the special R5 Turbo cars, following the rear engine formula they had always used. They built all Clio Williams and RenaultSport Spiders. The factory put its Alpine badges on the early batches of the mid-engine Clio series one Clio V6. The Clio Series 2 was also assembled there with more recent RenaultSport Clio 172 and RenaultSport Clio 182s.
Between 1989 and 1995, a projected new Alpine named the A710 "Berlinette 2", was designed and two prototypes were built. The A710 used the 2-litre, 150 horsepower engine from the Renault Clio Williams mounted in an aluminium chassis. Renault's marketing department stated that the car would need to be less basic and include more modern features such as electric windows and air conditioning. Subsequently, the project was deemed too costly (600 million francs), and as adding more modern equipment and interior would compromise the price and performances, the project was cancelled. Despite its cancellation, the engine and aluminium chassis from the A710 were later used on the Renault Sport Spider.
In 1999, Renault partnered with Lotus to develop the Z11 Berlinette, an art-deco design study investigating the return of the Alpine brand. The car was scheduled to be revealed at the 2001 Geneva Motor Show alongside the Koleos concept (codenamed Z10) and the Talisman concept (Z12), but the project was ultimately shelved and the Z11 was not shown.
21st century: relaunch of the Alpine marque.
In 2005, Renault was reportedly developing a new Alpine car, codenamed project W16. The concept was a small, mid engine 2+2 SUV based around the design of the Renault Wind concept car. The project never came to fruition.
In October 2007,