Gallery: new Renault Alpine concept meets its A110 grandfather - Top Gear
Alpine’s Antony Villain is the latest car designer to accept TopGear ’s sketch challenge. BJ Baldwin’s Chevy Silverado monster truck has just arrived behind us, star of a gazillion YouTube views and the throbbing, thunderous antithesis of Alpine’s elegant and elfin Celebration concept car. Actually, it sort of sums up the scale of Alpine’s challenge, as it tries to gain traction in a very noisy world. The brand is here in force at FoS, fielding a handful of cars from its 60-year history, including 1978’s outright Le Mans winner, the A442b. Problem is, unless you’re French and/or of a certain age and geeky inclination, you probably don’t know... Is it Renault’s performance sub-brand. As Villain’s pencil skates across my notepad, it’s clear that the Celebration – first revealed at Le Mans last month – is a thinly disguised production car. Renault will use the real thing to relaunch the Alpine brand in about 18 months’ time, and it will be light, compact, and mid-engined. Think Porsche Cayman or Alfa Romeo 4C – punchy, accessible, shrunken supercars. Villain, who works closely with Renault’s design boss Laurens van den Acker, is core to the team that has relocated the company’s aesthetic mojo, and there’s obviously a ton of motorsport expertise in the wider Renault firmament. Happily, the Celebration concept is one of those cars that looks and feels instantly fresh in the flesh, and channels the spirit of the Sixties A110 without being obviously retro. Source: www.topgear.com
