Alpine

Alpine A310?

goddamit too slow

that’s what I get for double checking

Renault Alpine, think it had a different name in the UK due to Sunbeam holding the rights to that word.

Thought it might be. Ta. Or should I say Merci? 😀

Were they imported to the UK?

Ridn’t Renault buy them?

The 70s one is pretty.

OT I really really liked Alpine A610 when I was a kid, I wander how much they cost now…

Looks like a kit car, but probably not as well built.

Never seen one in the flesh, but love the look of it 😀

OT I really really liked Alpine A610 when I was a kid, I wander how much they cost now…

I was just thinking similar. The answer is lots

There was the Renault GTA which was the base model for this car – then there was the Alpine

think it had a different name in the UK

Was called the GTA in the UK. A friend had one in the early ’90s and I used to get a lift to work in it every day. Very quick car in its day and the V6 right behind you sounded awesome under a bit of right foot, very plastic ’80s renault interior though. He sold it to help fund his dream alpine, one of these beauties (A110):
 

The standard GTA wasn’t quite as striking

Hmmm funny Renaults, wasn’t there a couple of three abreast coupes? Mureno or something? Going Google.

Matra Murena & Bagheera. Interesting cars, have a Google, can’t do pics from here.
Rancho would be good for bikes!

Rancho would be good for bikes!

Seriously? Ever seen one? The boss at a previous employer had one, because he was too tight to buy a Land Rover.
It was rubbish, underpowered, and only 2wd.
Horrid thing.
He also bought Ladas as company cars… 😯

Seen how the wipers are fitted?

Don’t remember the first ‘new’ Alpines being THAT ugly! 🙂

Rumour is that Caterham F1, (as you may know they use Renault powertrains), has done a deal with Renault over race engines that means that they may make a new Alpine under licence for the afformentioned french car manufacturers using there Caterham road car expertise in low volume production runs.

hey it’s only a rumour but i have heard it quite a few times in F1 circles as they say but it is worth noting that Renault new f1 power plant is a V6 90 deg much the same in design as the ‘PRV’ that was used in the alpine,

planets aligning ?

Reminds me a bit of this:

Always wanted a Rover 2600 as a kid, IIRC they did about eight miles to the gallon though.

not sure they were *that* bad but I did know someone who owned a tank (he was a farmer so he had somewhere to drive it) who claimed the fuel consumption was in gallons per mile. fortunately he could run it on red diesel…

I helped someone push a broken down SD1 once. It was harder work than pushing that bastard motor-home up the snowy road after Hit the North.

Seen how the wipers are fitted?

Oh yeah! Clappy wipers! Cool.

they do one up on Wheeler Dealers. Nice quirky bit of kit. The two people I know who had the later Renault GTA’s both crashed them. Quirky cars with quirky handling to match.

car in picture is a Alpine-Renault A310 – was originally available with the same 4 cylinder engine as seen in the previous A110 model.

the A110 was a very successful rally car in the early 70’s and are very sought after (and expensive) nowadays.

the A310 finally ended up with the well known V6 ‘prv’ (Peugeot, renault, volvo)engine, and then was followed by the Renault GTA and GTA turbo models.

The GTA was the first ‘Alpine-renault’ officially sold in the UK, but they could not use the ‘Alpine’ (pronounced ‘al-peen’)name due to issues with Chrysler having use of that within the UK market.

Finally the GTA was facelifted as the A610 towards the end of its life.

The GTA was a very underrated car in it’s day, with great handling and speed – I ran a turbo one for several years and both on road and track it was a great drive, and is very sadly missed.

regards – U.z.

We were in Sameon in the Alps back in June and the Renault Alpine club had their annual meeting outside the pub we were in. Beautiful looking cars and mostly painted in Blue. Google has pics of the new one that’s coming out and it’s even nicer than the original ( I think).

Official racing colour for French manufacturers is blue .

Germany silver, Italy red, British green etc etc

Yes Countzero, seriously. Yes, I saw lots back when they were around.
It’s the boot shape that makes a good bike car, not the number of driven wheels!