One word that I often hear associated with the French is “arrogant”. It’s true. French people themselves will tell you as such. Their food is top-tier when done by the best chefs the country has to offer. Their wines are world-class. You can make the judgement call on whether or not you fall victim to the tones of the French language spoken in that dark, smoky, oh-dear-God tones or if you’re hearing something akin to an angry cat with a royal sinus infection yowling for food every time somebody says something as innocuous as, “Bonjour!” But one thing we can’t give the French any standing for being arrogant on: cars. Nope. I don’t give a tinned shit about the Citroen 2CV. My gag reflex kicks in whenever I think about a Renault “Le Car”. The rally cars of the past, like the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 and 206 and the Renault R5 Maxi Turbo, get passes for being good race cars. But if there is one French car that is worthy of all-around praise, of both competency and beauty, of grace and style, then there is only car worth mentioning: the Renault-Alpine A110.
In pictures, the A110 looks much bigger than it actually is. In person, it’s positively dainty. I’m not convinced that I could physically fit into the car, and I’m not saying that in the joking, ha-ha big guy small car way. Just like a Lancia Scorpion/Montecarlo, my legs are probably too long to physically fit between pedals and where my hips would need to be. This means that the car is light…like 1,500 pounds curb weight. That means that a 140-horse four-cylinder mounted in the rear suddenly becomes a legitimate player in the game of sporting machines. When the International Championship for Manufacturers came about in rally racing for the 1970-72 seasons, Renault had taken 2nd, 1st and 17th place before the series was dropped in favor of the World Rally Championship…which Alpine-Renault took first in again for 1973. It’s small, it’s low on power, but it is striking to look at and it does it’s business in a manner like no other does, successfully.
I saw a few of those when I was stationed in Germany back in teh ’70’s. Beautiful little car.
Let me tell you, this car is not that low, the guy just conveniently omitted to tell how tall he is. I know, we had regularly some of those at the shop I worked at, an official Alpine dealer at the time, named Garage Pelve in Rennes France.
I always hear gross exaggerations and myth about french cars which really comes from most European brands lack of proper car distribution in the past in the US. Poor part inventory and difficulty to find shops that were familiar with the models didn’t help, and it sure was all the brands own fault and rush to enter markets they did not fully understand. I can also tell you that the Renaults build at AMC did not have the same build as the European models. This said, Jay Leno has been debunking a lot of myths in his shows by just presenting the ones he owns.
If the guy can’t fit well in an Alpine, he probably can’t fit at all in a Leyland era Mini. If you google Alpine A110 you can see real people/car proportions. As underpowered and inexpensive of sports car the entire Alpine line was, if you wanted a sports car back then, you would definitely favor an Alpine over a Ferrari. The key difference was not power relevant, but how often you could actually drive the car because Ferraris were not reliable and would seat at shops waiting for parts like if it was a normal thing.
Any way, the 110 was used a lot in “courses de Cote”, narrow hill climbs. In the 80’s most were not in that great of shape, showed a great amount abuse, alterations and parts were already becoming harder to find. Racing one would typically mean have a sand bag in the front for adjustments. A110 is my favorite Alpine.
Finally, a new, modern A110 was introduced in 2017.
Interesting, I previously thought those things were about the size of a 911, which isn’t exactly large. But that video suggests the Alpine is a bit smaller than a Triumph Spitfire.