Alpine (automobile)
Alpine is the name of a French sports car brand, founded Jean Rédélé 1955 in his home town of Dieppe (France).
Overview
In Dieppe Rédélé also built the Alpine car factory, in which the vehicles were made by hand. The first work of Alpine was in the Avenue Pasteur; from 1970 a new plant was also taken in the industrial area of Dieppe in operation. Construction of the new Alpine plant in Dieppe began in 1969. The production area for Alpine vehicles quadrupled and changed the manufacture of one-off production to mass production by hand. For the new building in the Avenue de Bréauté Etienne Desjardines was responsible. There was in addition a third manufacturing plant with 130 employees in the department of Eure- et- Loire, in Thiron- Gardais. It was closed after the construction of the plant in Dieppe in 1974.
The logo of the brand Alpine Alpine is the "A" or the word Alpine. The name Alpine chose Jean Rédélé reference to his victory in the Alps Cup in 1954. Alpine vehicles gained in motorsport through their success, international fame. The best-known vehicle of the brand Alpine is Alpine A110 Berlinetta, who was with Europe and two world titles in rallying legend. In addition to the Alpine A110 Berlinetta (nicknamed " flounder ", the rally factory driver was because of the color of the cars often referred to as "The Blue Rider " ) also gained the Alpine A310 V6 engine with a higher level of awareness. The Alpine A310 V6 was with a quantity of 9276 copies and is the most common model built by Alpine.
Alpine was next to the rallying where Alpine temporarily maintained one of the bigger teams also successful in other motor sports. Jean -Pierre Jaussaud and Didier Pironi won in 1978 with a Alpine A442, the 24 - hour race at Le Mans.
1973 took over the majority of shares in Renault Alpine. Renault boss Pierre Dreyfus and the Alpine - founders agreed that Rédélé should continue to remain CEO. The end of 1978 Rédélé sold his remaining shares in Renault and resigned. The trademark of Alpine belonged to 2012 alone, the Renault group. 2012 Renault sold 50 % of the shares of the Alpine sports car manufacturer Caterham Cars from the UK. It is intended in the future to produce vehicles under the name of Alpine and revive the brand. The Alpine factory in Dieppe strain is preserved and produced after 1995 Renault vehicles, often sporty models.
For the 50th anniversary of the A110 Berlinetta, the 1962 was introduced at the Paris Motor Show, was presented during the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monaco, the prototype A110- 50th The car was a new version of the Renault DeZir ( Désir ) by 2010. Among the 24 - hour race at Le Mans in 2013, Renault entered into cooperation with the Signatech team and brought back the Alpine brand at the start. Under the umbrella of the team Signatech an Oreca Nissan was renamed Alpine A450. He finished eighth in the LMP2 class.
Businesses and vehicles
Jean Rédélé 's parents ran in his home town of Dieppe a Renault workshop, which he took over shortly after the Second World War at age 24. He was the youngest Renault dealer in France. Jean Rédélé interested in motorsport, and went from 1951 even race. As a successful driver with Renault vehicles, especially Renault 4CV, he had the idea to construct its own sports car that would be even better with a light, aerodynamically shaped body, a new transmission and improved engines for motor sport - a small, light vehicle with a rear engine, fast, agile, athletic. Jean Rédélé began producing a five speed transmission for its vehicles, which brought him in racing use a significant advantage over the competition. He built the first gear in a Renault 4CV and reached with the vehicle in 1952 at the Mille Miglia a class victory.
The first vehicle to Jean Rédélé newly constructed, was a rally car based on a Renault 4CV. In the development of the body he was assisted by Giovanni Michelotti, who had designed the car. Was built the aluminum body with Allemano in Italy. The weight of the vehicle was 550 kg. The front of the prototype recalled the later built from 1956 Renault Dauphine. Jean Redele took the car in person from Italy to France and put himself appoint in racing. He won with the car in 1953 at the Rally Dieppe, the Coupe Dessessart and won the cup in Lisbon ( Portugal). It was followed by two more prototypes, both as " Renault 4CV Rédélé Special" are known. The first prototype had an aluminum body. The second prototype was shown at the 1954 New York Auto Show and was originally intended to be produced in the U.S. as "The Marquis " and sold. The project failed, the car stopped for reasons of cost in the U.S., as a return to France would have been too expensive. 2011 bought Rédélé Jean 's family back to the car and brought him back to France. The prototype is now in Paris in the private car museum in the Rédélé family. In 2012 he was exhibited at the Retro Mobile Classics show in Paris. Jean Rédélé developed the prototype and the first Alpine A106 before the company was founded in 1955. The first production sports car from Alpine, the Alpine A106 coach, was an evolution of the prototypes and was the founding year of the company in 1955 to the public and in Renault 's main factory in Billancourt the Renault group presents. Jean Rédélé experimented early on with new materials such as glass fiber reinforced plastic for auto bodies. Already the first production car, the Alpine A106 was produced with GRP bodywork. The A106 was developed in collaboration with Chappe et Gessalin which manufactured the bodies made of fiberglass.
1955, Jean Rédélé the " Société des Automobiles Alpine " in Dieppe (France), and the Alpine brand was born. The name Alpine had won a reference to the Alps Cup, the Rédélé a year earlier. Jean Rédélé marketed its cars through the Rue de Forest (11, 13, 18) in Paris, namely the Paris workshop of his father Charles Escoffier, who supported him in everything. The vehicles could be individually customized and were made by hand individually. 1955, ahead of company formation,, Jean Rédélé already production-ready Alpine A106 Alpine A106 Mille Miles as in the colors red, white, blue in accordance with the French national flag in front. 1956 began series production of the Alpine A106 as a street version. Until 1960 251 vehicles were assembled by hand, more than 40 under license in Belgium. A prototype of a convertible version with Chappe et Gessalin body was presented in Paris in 1956, but never went into production. Nevertheless, a convertible version of the Alpine A106 came in 1957 on the market, however, had a different, designed by Giovanni Michelotti / Allemano plastic body. With the appearance of the convertible, the first A106 received the leg imitate "Coach". Only a short time later began the gradual transition to the Alpine A108, the first was a convertible and then made available as a coupe. The Alpine A106 was further built a few years in parallel with the A108. After a critical design review of 1960 five different Alpine models were prepared: Alpine A106 Coach, Alpine A108 Cabriolet Sport, Alpine A108 Coupe Sport, Alpine A108 Berlinetta Tour de France ( who became world famous in revised terter version later than Alpine A110 Berlinetta ) and a Alpine with four seats, Alpine A108 Coupe 2 2. With the design change in the A108 the most famous design of the Alpine vehicles came on the market. With the new model of the Alpine A108 Jean Rédélé took himself and his company are the production of the body. However Chappe et Gessalin presented continues to produce the body of the Alpine 2 2. Again, the transitions from the A108 to the A110 successor are fluid. The most famous Alpine, the A110 Berlinetta, was first built in the fall of 1961, but the car was officially unveiled until the following year in Paris in 1962 to the public. The A110 Berlinetta at that time had not yet its characteristic dual headlights. This design change came in 1967. The Alpine A110 Berlinetta developed from the Alpine A108 Berlinetta and was built until 1977. This car was one of the most successful rally cars in motor racing history and was only replaced by the Lancia Stratos. Far less known than the famous A110 Berlinetta, the other Alpine A110 models such as the A110 and the A110 - convertible GT4. Both models were only built in the 1960s and are now rarities.
Some early Alpine models ( A108 or A110 ) were built under license by various other car manufacturers: Dinalpin (Mexico), Bulgaralpine (Bulgaria), Willys Interlagos (Brazil), FASA Alpine ( Spain).
1965 joined Jean Rédélé with the Italian coachbuilder Osi contracts. Alpine should investigate the construction of plastic shaped bottom groups for Ferrari. Osi bought a Alpine A108 Berlinetta Tour de France and revised it a unique piece. The car was exhibited at the 1965 Turin Motor Show. The collaboration with Alpine a single-seater made of ABS emerged beyond, which should make the method known in Europe. 1967 presented Osi and Alpine before the Protopyp " Bisiluro Silver Fox ", who wore the Alpine logo A1000cc on the side and was powered by a tuned at Alpine Renault engine A1000cc. The car was also shown at the 1997 Retro Mobile show in Paris.
1970 Jean Rédélé drew up plans for a small city car. For the delivery of the required motors, however, Renault demanded extremely high prices, which allowed the project to fail.
The last production model, developed Jean Rédélé itself, was the futuristic Alpine A310. The Alpine A310 was built parallel to the Alpine A110 Berlinetta until 1977. With the development of the A310 Rédélé began in 1968. It is slightly larger and more comfortable than its predecessor and should be placed as a French Porsche competitor on the market. Since the development of the PRV engine ( collaboration between Peugeot, Renault and Volvo) had not been completed, the A310 came in 1971, first as a four-cylinder version on the market and was only in 1976, as originally planned, in with the V6 engine Heck equipped. To check the conversion to the V6 engine, two prototypes were built and tested one years extensive. The Alpine A310 V6 produced from 1976 has been revised not only technically but also visually. The most striking feature are the modified headlights. The Alpine A310 V6 was then the fastest road sports car in France. 1980 Alpine A310 V6 has been revised visually and technically and was until the end of production in 1984 in two versions, Alpine A310 V6 ( four holes) and Alpine A310 V6 GT Pack (Alpine A310 V6 S in Germany ) sold. The A310 was the last Alpine, which was made entirely by hand. He is so far the most successful after the sales model of Alpine.
In 1984, now under the direction of Renault, the former parent company of Alpine, two new Alpine models were brought to market, the Alpine V6 GT and Alpine V6 Turbo, the purely optical differed only in details (internal designation D500 / D501/D502 ). Unlike the successful predecessor models, the models were planned as a pure road sports car and not for racing and constructed. The Alpine V6 GT ( D500 ) was offered with 160 - hp naturally aspirated and the Alpine V6 Turbo ( D501 ) with 200 or ( with catalyst ) 185 hp ( D502 ). During the production time of the Alpine V6 Turbo, the parent company Renault changed its strategy regarding the marketing of the brand Alpine and began in 1989 to completely delete the double name " Renault Alpine ". This dual brand name was used as a pure sales name in the 1980s, for vehicles of the brand Alpine, although in the papers continue only Alpine was officially registered as manufacturers and brand. The return to the historical origins should return the stand-alone image again the brand Alpine. The time of the blurred separation of the two brands, which at any time were legally two distinct brands, leading to today popularly confusion which manufacturer or which brand the Alpine vehicles must be assigned correctly. The Alpine V6 Turbo is revised and offered from 1990 as Alpine V6 Turbo Le Mans in sales. The redesigned body already shows the transition to the successor Alpine A610 Turbo ( internally D503 ). As of 1991, the Alpine A610 Turbo was built with a compared to the previous model the new engine and different front end. The Alpine A610 Turbo is the development of the U.S. version from 1987 and was built until 1995. One approach taken in the car the aim to get into the super sports car segment, what the price to DM 105,000 increase, the sales figures but did break. With the end of production of the Alpine A610 Turbo car production was set at marker Alpine.
Renault sales and marketing director Patrick Blain had announced that starting in 2010 sports car to be produced under the brand Alpine. It should be a work based on the Renault Clio mid-engine vehicle that will come with small turbocharged engines and initially come as a two-seater roadster in traditional plastic construction on the market. About a coupe version was not yet decided. Produced 'll be back at the former Alpine location in Dieppe. Priced the new model at the Mazda MX -5 should orient. The styling recall the A110, which to date most successful model of the brand.
In addition to the standard models and street sports car the Alpine built a series of vehicles that were manufactured exclusively for racing. Many years were also used by the French police as a company car Alpine vehicles.
Overview of the logos of Alpine
Early Logo of Alpine as writing
Alpine logo as logo
Alpine logo
Alpine Logo - " Alpine A "
Alpine logo
Alpine logo from 1991
Logo of Alpine in Dieppe (France) built vehicles.
Alpine logo Alpine FASA. Under license by FASA in Spain.
Models of the brand Alpine
Motorsport and results
The motor sport became a permanent sports car brand Alpine. By Jean Rédélé 's passion for racing the brand from the idea arose out to construct your own race cars. As long as company founder Jean Rédélé led the shops in Alpine, there was an Alpine factory team, which was active in many areas of motorsport. Jacques Cheinisse, even racers, was for many years head of the racing department and business manager at Alpine. The Alpine factory team impressed with many international victories over years of rallying, and was one of the largest and most successful of its time.
After the success in Monte Carlo there was global requests to be allowed to exhibit the winning car of Alpine. In order to meet the immense popularity just, Jean Rédélé was unceremoniously replicate multiple copies of the original vehicle, the ( dirt on the body) alike in all details, including license plate, start number, stickers and mud with the original.
1963 Alpine launched for the first time in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Lotus engineer Len Terry built for the M63 (first Alpine racing car for Le Mans), the chassis including suspension. The original was designed by Terry body, an improved copy of the Lotus 23, was due to a change by the CSI are not used. Marcel Hubert developed the body later used the M63. From Renault Alpine bought an R8 engine, which was developed by Gordini for race engine. The engine Renault sold also to the automobile manufacturers René Bonnet of German & Bonnet (DB ), which was later acquired by Matra. The first race of the Alpine M63 took place at the Nurburgring. In the following years, Alpine was able to achieve several victories index, such as the 1964 double victory for the Alpine Gewichts-/Verbrauchsindex ( overall winner in 1964 in Le Mans was Ferrari) or in 1966 triple victory in the Gewichts-/Verbrauchsindex at Le Mans. Ford was the overall winner. After a break of participation at Le Mans in 1978 reached an Alpine A442B the overall victory in Le Mans; Alpine seemed to Porsche and Ferrari to the finish. The success of Alpine racing also aroused the interest of Renault. As a result of cooperation between Alpine and Renault appeared at the 24 Hours of Le Mans first time in 1967 on the double name " Alpine Renault ".
Jean Rédélé presented in 1964 his first Formula One racing car, to get started with Alpine in the Formula 2 and Formula 3. The Formula 2 cars were only used by the factory team, while the Formula 3 cars and customers were open.
1974 Alpine European champion in the two-liter category.
In 1976, Alpine in Dieppe a Formula 1 racing car, wearing the factory designation Alpine A500. Renault had developed a 500 - horsepower turbocharged engine and wanted 1977 into Formula 1. Renault also had the erfolderlichen financial resources. The Alpine A500 was the second Formula 1 race cars, the Alpine built (predecessor: Alpine A350 1968 ).
After the complete sale of the brand Alpine to Renault in 1978, the Group decided not to continue the tradition with Alpine cars in racing.