The Alpine A110: The Most Amazing Car You've Never Heard Of - The Cheat Sheet
In many cases, the performance divisions have become nearly as famous as their parent companies: Ford has the Special Vehicles Team (or SVT), BMW has its M-Division, Nissan has Nismo, and Mercedes has AMG. Based on the humble underpinnings of Renaults, Alpines have always been quintessentially French cars, but a complicated history has taken it on some interesting detours through places like Brazil, Bulgaria, Mexico, and Spain along the way. From his dealership in the northern French town of Dieppe, Rédélé worked on and fielded rear-engined Renault 4CVs around Europe. After success racing modified cars in the Alps, Rédélé decided to build ultra-lightweight competition cars based on the 4CV’s humble mechanicals. In 1955, he presented three of his fiberglass-bodied sports cars (in French red, white, and blue) called the A106 at Renault headquarters, and immediately earned the company’s support. By the end of the decade, the A106 had been joined by the more modern A108. Longer, more powerful and based on the new Renault Dauphine, the car’s gorgeous fiberglass body had a simple elegance to it, and its modern fastback profile predated the... Despite the car’s good looks and strong performance, Alpine was nearly broke, and desperately needed help. Source: www.cheatsheet.com
