I seem to learn something new on a daily basis about the beloved Alpine A110. I had always known that the A110 was produced in Mexico under the name “Dinalpin”, however i did NOT know that the A110 was also manufactured in Brazil under the name “Interlagos” and ALSO that it was manufactured in Bulgaria under the name Bulgarlpine! What a crazy crazy name. I laughed when i first read it. So apparently they were produced under a private contract between Alpine and Bulet (bulgarian company). These cars were not sold on the regular market—-and apparently they were sold to private racing and rally groups. It is rumoured that less than 150 cars were produced in total, and the majority ended up being raced privately.
I can’t help but be fascinated by this mysterious twist in the A110 story……
EDIT:
N1KK3L (an IEDEI reader) is from Bulgaria, and added this very interesting information to the story:
“The Bulgaralpine was part of the Bulgarrenault initiative. A partnership between some Bulgarian industrialists and Renault which allowed the assembly (proudly labeled as a manufacture) of Renault 4 cars in Bulgaria.Which was unusual thing at the time as a Soviet satellite countries (like Bulgaria) weren’t allowed to partner with western countries.
The agreement meant that the Bulgarrenaut cars can only be sold in Bulgaria, but the Bulgarians (as usual) tried to outsmart their partners and earn some extra cash by exporting the cars. Which caused the Renault cars to end the partnership. That’s not mentioned in Wikipedia but that’s how we Bulgarians know it happened.Only a handful of Bulgaralpine cars were made and I’ve had the pleasure to see one in person. I suppose it’s identical to the Renault A110. Other interesting fact is that this car helped a very talented Iliya Chibricov win “Rally Bulgaria” (then it was called “Rally Zlatni Piasaci”). A first and only win for Bulgarian crew, until very recently(2008 I think). At the time all Bulgarian rally pilots only had access to Ladas and other Russian machinery which weren’t competitive. And the Bulgaralpine really made a difference”
Apparently, 2 of the cars even ended up rallying in the 1968 Rallye of Monte Carlo, driven by Iliya + Nikola Chubrikov & Atanas Taskov + Atanas Agura. Here is a photo of those 2 cars:
IEDEI 
Hi I was a frequent visitor and left some comments in the last year, I’m not so so frequent anymore. Anyway I’m Bulgarian and can share some details on the car.
The Bulgaralpine was part of the Bulgarrenault initiative. A partnership between some Bulgarian industrialists and Renault which allowed the assembly (proudly labeled as a manufacture) of Renault 4 cars in Bulgaria.
Which was unusual thing at the time as a Soviet satellite countries (like Bulgaria) weren’t allowed to partner with western countries.
The agreement meant that the Bulgarrenaut cars can only be sold in Bulgaria, but the Bulgarians (as usual) tried to outsmart their partners and earn some extra cash by exporting the cars. Which caused the Renault cars to end the partnership. That’s not mentioned in Wikipedia but that’s how we Bulgarians know it happened.
Only a handful of Bulgaralpine cars were made and I’ve had the pleasure to see one in person. I suppose it’s identical to the Renault A110.
Other interesting fact is that this car helped a very talented Iliya Chibricov win “Rally Bulgaria” (then it was called “Rally Zlatni Piasaci”). A first and only win for Bulgarian crew, until very recently(2008 I think). At the time all Bulgarian rally pilots only had access to Ladas and other Russian machinery which weren’t competitive. And the Bulgaralpine really made a difference.
hey, man! thank you for that information!! it is very hard to find good information about the Bulgaralpine—–but you have added some very interesting facts about it! thank you! **i am going to add this into the original post, if you don’t mind)**
Unfortunately I must disagree with what N1kk3l said.
First of all Bulgaria had a licence for Renault 8 and 10, not 4.
Renault were aware some of the Bulgarrenault cars have been exported.
How?
They’ve been sending their own, all the way from France, quality control representatives which were checking every single car before it left Bulgarian soil. This was usually done at Kalotina, which is the border between Bulgaria and Serbia/Yugoslavia.
This info comes from people who worked at the factory back then.
What is the real reason why the production was ceased?
Politics.
The capitalistic Renault/Bulgarrenault 8 and 10 have been identified as a threat to the communistic industry. The 1970 was the year when hugely popular VAZ-2101 went into production.
VAZ-2101 is almost a carbon copy of Fiat 124 for which USSR got a licence and worked very closely with Fiat and invested loads of money in the development of the project. VAZ was only founded in the 1960’s and USSR couldn’t risk its existence by having another competitor on the market.
Ironically 25% of AvtoVAZ (VAZ was renamed to AvtoVAZ) is currently owned by…………………… Renault.
Another thing. Yes it was an assembly line at the beggining but the plans were to make some sort of an independant production line, not fully dependant on parts supplied from France.
In fact, before the production was fully shut down few thousand accessory kits made in Bulgaria were exported to France.
Renault 8 and Renault 10 were assembled in Bulgaria (not 4 as written above) named BulgarRenault 8 and 10 respectively. Only the 1300 ccm engine was used. The Bulgarian mutation of Wikipedia has a picture of an Alpine 4 (the link is here: shorturl.at/lpuJS) labeled as BulgarAlpine, but this is not true, only the A110 was assembled under this name. Also Chubrikov won the Bulgarian Rally (named at the time Zlatni pjasatci, meaning Golden sands – a resort on Black sea) with an French Alpine and 1600 ccm engine. Another “trivia” – there was BulgarAlpine cabrio too, but I never saw one in my childhood in Sofia. Should be the rarest of them all, I guess? The re-export was not an issue, but Soviets didn’t like the idea of Western car assembled in the East block, so they forced the cease of the production. Romania, btw was not that obedient under the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and kept assembling Renaults 8 and 10 under the name Dacia. The brand exists to this day.