Renault has decided to resurrect its sportscar brand, Alpine, best known for the iconic A110. This classic brand has many fans and there's a lot on the cards for the French marque, including a comprehensive model line up. First out the blocks is this Alpine Vision concept.
The brand had been mothballed for more than 20 years, but Renault has confirmed that Alpine will make a full production return in 2017. However, despite its absence, the Alpine brand has been busy thanks to its fanbase. Plenty of racing examples are still being entered in events and, between the years of 1955 and 1995, 30 000 Alpine vehicles were produced and sold… so its return is highly anticipated. The Alpine vehicles will be assembled in Dieppe, France, which is the home of RenaultSport, and the first units are expected to go on sale in European markets in 2017 with plans to ship them around the world.
The iconic Alpine A110 was the design inspiration for the reborn marque.
Alpine Vision concept details
The Alpine Vision concept car is a mid-engined, two-seat sports coupe that has a lightweight body and a turbocharged engine. Alpine is claiming that it'll hit 100 kph from standstill in 4.5 seconds, which puts it squarely in Porsche Boxster and Alfa Romeo 4C territory (that's not bad company to be in). Power will come from a four-cylinder motor, but at this stage there are no details about its capacity or peak outputs. However, we can speculate that either a 1.6-litre turbo from the Renault Clio RS or the 2.0-litre turbo from the Renault Megane RS Trophy would be ideal candidates. If we look at how well the Alfa Romeo 4C has done with its 1.7-litre turbo motor, the secret to performance success is not outright power, but rather a good power-to-weight ratio. A twin-clutch transmission is expected, but we'll hope for the option of a manual. The cabin will receive a digital dashboard similar to the one found in the Audi TT.
The reception that Alpine has received since 2012 when Renault Group announced a relaunch has been incredible. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the legendary 1962 Alpine A110 race car, Renault built the Alpine A110-50 concept which sounded incredible and was shown off at many motorsport events.
