Yes, a French supercar. It does exist, and it’s known as the Alpine GTA. Or the Renault-Alpine GTA. What is it, exactly? It’s the PRV V6 you know and love in such cars as Volvos and the DeLorean, mounted behind the rear axle, in a shape that actually is attractive. Looking at an Alpine GTA is highly recommended…there is usually one in the Lane Museum in Nashville, if you get the chance. Look all you want, but don’t touch and for the love of everything that is holy, make sure you know what you are doing before you get behind the wheel and try to drive one hard. Just like “Widowmaker” Porsches, the Alpine’s rear-engine design, coupled with a on-off switch of a turbocharger, makes the car an unpredictable pendulum in the corners.

But again, the car is attractive, and they made decent enough power for their time. So if an enthusiast wanted to build one up and make it interesting, we will watch…from a distance, sure, but Alpine cars were always about performance. Watching this Alpine run 302 horsepower at the wheels at 14.5 psi of boost even gives us hope for the PRV mill, an engine we usually deride. But the dyno run itself is kind of scary, if we are honest. We like heavy straps holding cars down on the rollers ourselves, but who needs straps when you have a couple of friends that double as dead weight?