Tag Archives: dieppe

June92013
2 Comments
automotive, business, cars, design, iedei, men, racing, sports, vintage

A450 Le Mans test day.

alpine-2013-helmet-a450

I eagerly await this year’s Le Mans (June 22-23)—-and while I will be, as usual, pulling for the stunning Audi R18s to win (as expected they will), my eyes will actually be peeled out for the Alpine A450 which heralds the return of one of the greatest marques in racing back to Le Mans!  Sure this is a car that was developed primarily by Nissan originally, however its tuning and program is now joined to the hip with Dieppe and the Renaultsport/Alpine tuners.  It is such a great feeling to see the Alpine marque on the track again, and with reasonable success I am sure that in the near future we will start to see a non-Nissan Alpine race car being developed and run in future endurance events!  

Here are some photos shown by Team Signature about the current A450 race car doing Le Mans testing this weekend in France.

As usual, IEDEI will be setting up live feeds of Le Mans on this site as we do every year to help everyone to watch it!

alpine-a450-1

alpine-a450-2

alpine-a450-le-mans-test-day

alpine-a450-4

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
May142013
5 Comments
automotive, business, cars, design, iedei, men, racing, sports, vintage

Renault Icons: Alpine A110 videos.

alpine-a110-renault-icons

Renault TV posted these official videos in celebration of their history and the resurrection of the Alpine marque.  Car videos are mostly uninspiring, materialistic nonsense–but these Alpine A110 videos are out of this world….maybe because the car is out of this world?

Best part….it’s in English!  So my rudimentary and primitive French translation doesn’t have to be challenged like it normally does with Alpine videos.

Tagged , , , , , ,
November42012
Leave a comment
art, automotive, business, cars, design, iedei, men, racing, vintage

Renault, Caterham, and details of ‘new’ Alpine coming soon.

(above  and below renderings by Volatile Vertex)

A press conference has been scheduled for November 5th (Monday) to be co-hosted by Renault and Caterham to discuss the details of the upcoming Alpine project.  Very exciting news indeed.

Here are some of the ideas being thrown around:  Weight of a little over 1 tonne (!!), target launch 3-5 years from now, 200-250hp, less than 4.3 meters long, and that it will “look like the A110 Berlinette”.   5,000 to 10,000 units per year.  Target price of 35k-40k Euros. Very exciting.

There are some questions over what the functions of the original Dieppe Alpine factory would be, if the entire task of the new Alpine’s construction and engineering are left to Caterham.  More details as they evolve, obviously.

 

(above photo via Renault Sport’s FB page)

UPDATE:  Renault and Caterham have revealed that they will both get a version of the upcoming Alpine.  Theoretically the car will likely be a roadster for Caterham and a coupe for Alpine (sounds right!).  Prices will be low (under 40k Euros), and most interestingly—-Caterham now will take a 50% stake in Alpine as a marque!  I find this last sentence very interesting.

src:  lePoint, expatica

Tagged , , , , , , ,
%d bloggers like this: