Alpine
Alpine was a French car manufacturer producing radical sports cars which very successful on the race track. It was founded by Jean Rédélé in the early 1950s and was one of the few French car companies that achieved success on the race track in the post World War II era. Though Alpine was never amongst the ‘most popular’ list of car makers, it produced more than its share of champion sports cars.
The Alpine cars ran on rear mounted Renault engines. In fact, Alpine has had a lifelong relationship with Renault and was known as Alpine-Renault. Ultimately, in the early 1970s, Renault acquired majority in the Alpine company and took over Alpine via a bailout as Europe was hit by a fuel crisis and car markets were the most affected. Today, Alpine is the Renaultsport Technologies factory (owned by Renault) in Dieppe, France.
Early days, early success of Alpine:
Jean Rédélé stuck with Renault since the beginning of Alpine. He won in several major race track events like the Mille Miglia and the Coupe des Alpes behind the wheels of a Renault 4CV. As his experience with the small 4CV expanded, he made many modifications like a special 5 speed gear boxes and some special versions with lightweight aluminium bodies; which he drove at Sebring and Le Mans with some success. Encouraged by the outcome and increasing customer demand, Jean Rédélé founded the Société Anonyme des Automobiles Alpine in 1954. It was named Alpine in acknowledgement of its Coupe des Alpes race exploits. Thus began the journey of Alpine.
However, troubles also began almost simultaneously. For one, the name ‘Alpine’ itself caused marketing problems. Unknown to Rédélé, in England, Sunbeam Car Company had introduced a sports coupe called the Sunbeam Alpine the previous year. This issue continued to create problems for Alpine throughout.
In 1955, Rédélé helped to pioneer auto glass fiber construction and produced a small coupe, based on 4CV mechanicals. It was called the Alpine A106 which did a good job on the race track.
On the other hand, Alpine began working closely with Renault. When Renault introduced its R8 saloon in 1962, Alpine redeveloped their chassis and made minor body changes so that R8 mechanicals could be used. This new car was the A110 Berlinette Tour de France.
Achievements of Alpine:
On the whole, Alpine was very successful in racing events. In 1971, they achieved a 1-2-3 finish in the Monte Carlo rally, using cars that ran on engines that were derived from the Renault R16. Two years later, they repeated the same feat and went on to win the World Rally Championship outright, beating Porsche, Ford and the likes. During this entire period, production of the Alpine A110 soared and manufacturing deals were struck for A110s and A108s with factories in a number of other countries. By 1968, Alpine had been allocated the whole Renault competition budget. This partnership allowed Alpines to be sold and maintained in France by regular Renault dealerships.
Following the 1973 international petrol crisis, Alpine was taken over by Renault and in the early 1990s, Renault abandoned the name Alpine because of trademark complications. However, the original Dieppe factory of Alpine continues to manufacture Renault sports cars and there are clubs of enthusiasts devoted to the legendary Alpine brand all over Europe even today, especially in France.
- Neil Chitnis
Tags: alpine, alpine- renault, jean rédélé, renault, sports cars
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