Renault Alpine A110

It is a common mistake but, with respect, these are not Renaults any more than a Lancia or Ferrari is a FIAT.
Societé des Automobiles Alpine was founded by Jean Rédélé in the early 1950s and the first Alpine, the "Coach A106" built on the floorpan of the Renault 4CV, was presented in July 1955. The A108 Cabriolet appeared in 1957 and was the first implementation of the backbone chassis structure, it is not a tubular spaceframe, that was carried through all subsequent Alpines. The A108 Coupé followed in 1959 and the A108 Berlinette appeared in September 1960. The A110 Berlinette came along in 1962 as did the A110 GT4 2+2 variant and in 1968 Jean Rédélé made an accord with Renault for distribution of Alpines through the Renault dealership.
It was during 1967, when Jean Rédélé was in the throes of negotiating with Renault to sell and support Alpines by the Renault dealer network, that the Renault diamond first appeared on the nose of the A110 and ALPINE RENAULT badging appeared on the engine cover. Up until then the nose of Alpines had carried the legend “ALPINE” and the engine covers either no logo, ”ALPINE”, the flying “A” of Alpine or the model designation such as “ALPINE 1300”. However, the chassis plaques give the manufacturer as “Societé des Automobiles Alpine”
Gradually Renault increased their financial support to Alpine’s competition activities as the company sought to derive publicity benefit from Alpine’s competition successes. The Régie eventually took a majority holding in Alpine in 1973, the year that Alpine-Renault won the inaugural World Rally Championship with the A110 and 11 years after the introduction of that model. Even subsequent to Renault taking a controlling interest the Alpine marque identity was retained within the Renault corporate organisation; just like Lancia, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo within FIAT and more recently like Jaguar within Ford.
The first showing of the A310 was at the Geneva motor show in 1971, the year that Alpine won the European Rally Championship for makes with the A110. The A310 concept was actually a co-operative design study undertaken by Alpine and Renault that begin in 1968. But despite that co-operation the A310 did not have a Renault badge on the nose until the V6 variant of September 1976 that also had Alpine Renault moulded into the rear spoiler; the Alpine Renault moulding was replaced by Renault Alpine from about 1980. The replacement for the A310, the V6 GT, appeared in 1985, with its chassis plate bearing the manufacturer’s formal name, Alpine Renault, but badged externally Renault Alpine. However, by 1987 Renault had finally realised that in trying to draw benefit from the Alpine charisma for their general production cars they had generated a significant disincentive to prospective buyers in the top-end high-cost performance market sector from the association with Renaults mass-market cars. So the decision was taken to re-emphasise the Alpine marque to try to regain the lost status and the new GTA received prominent Alpine badging for all markets except the UK where Alpine could not be used as the overt manufacturer designation for legal reasons. By 1990 the Alpine badge was back prominently on the nose of the cars and the name Alpine was again emblazoned on the rear panel. The final Alpine, the A610, was introduced at the Geneva Salon in 1991 and proudly carried external Alpine badging and an Alpine Renault chassis plate through to the end of Alpine production in 1995. Since then various Renaults have been built in the Alpine factory but they are and will remain Renaults not Alpines.
The correct marque designation for our cars is either Alpine or Alpine-Renault.
Tim Moores
A110 Registrar
Club Alpine Renault (UK)