Carlos Tavares (Renault CEO) has been talking some details about the resurrection of Alpine! It seems it will be a completely new car, and NOT the A110-50 that was shown several months ago. Should be very, very interesting.
My bet is that Lotus is going to be involved in this….as Lotus and Alpine have a history of collaboration.
from Autocar:
Carlos Tavares:
“We could have given our engineers €50 million and told them to make the best of it. But that would probably have produced a mediocre car because it’s not much money to play with. Alpine has a great history, and we want to make emotional cars that will be true to that.”
“He won’t yet reveal the mechanical layout but admits it is unlikely to be rear-engined, as the A110 was.”
“Convenience is an important part of modern packaging,” Tavares says, “but we are not inclined to compromise too much. This is a car that must appeal to the emotions. If you refine such a car too much, it loses its special character.”
The production Alpine will bear little relation to the Alpine concept from earlier this year that incorporated the styling of the DeZir concept on to a Mégane Trophy racer.
IEDEI 