The History of Alpine: Dieppe's Sports Cars From the A106 to the A290

Jean Rédélé: the dealer who raced

Jean Rédélé was born in May 1922 and became France's youngest Renault dealer at 24, in Dieppe. He started racing at 28 in a Renault 4CV, the small rear-engined Renault of the post-war years. He won the first Rallye de Dieppe in one, and in 1953 he won the fourth edition in a lightened 4CV Speciale Sport.

With his co-driver Louis Pons he won his class in the Mille Miglia three times, and he also took a class win on the Coupe des Alpes. Customers began asking for replicas of his modified cars. In 1954 Rédélé fitted a lower, lighter coupé body to a 4CV chassis, and in 1955 he registered the Société des Automobiles Alpine. Sources give 25 June or 6 July 1955 for the company's founding date.

Alpine timeline

A106 and A108: the first Alpines

The A106 of 1955 used the 4CV's 747 cc engine with 16 or 28 kW (21 or 38 hp), depending on tune, in a glassfibre coupé body styled by Giovanni Michelotti and built with the coachbuilder Chappe et Gessalin. Its name came from the 4CV's factory code, 106E. About 650 were made, which makes it the rarest series Alpine.

The A108 followed, shown at Paris in 1957 and built from 1958, with Dauphine-based engines of 845 cc and later 998 cc. It also travelled: Willys-Overland built it under licence in Brazil as the Interlagos from 1962 to 1966. One source counts 236 A108s from Dieppe between 1958 and 1965.

The A110 Berlinette and the rally years

The A110 used the running gear of the Renault 8 in a low, light Berlinette body. Sources date its introduction between 1961 and 1963; most give 1962. It started with a 956 cc engine and 38 kW (51 bhp). Over the years capacity rose through 1,108, 1,255, 1,565 and 1,605 cc, and by 1974 works cars had about 1.8 litres and more than 134 kW (180 bhp) in a car weighing about 620 kg. From 1967 the cars carried the Alpine-Renault name.

By our calculation, the 1974 works car carried about 4.6 kg per kW, less than the 6.0 kg per kW of the new A110 of 2017. On the road the A110 sold modestly, but in rallying it was formidable. At the Monte Carlo Rally of 1971 Alpines finished first, second and fourth. In 1973, the first season of the World Rally Championship, the A110 1800 won the manufacturers' title. The rally rival that followed it was the Lancia Stratos, purpose-built for the stages.

Alpine also built racing prototypes. The M65 of 1965 weighed 669 kg, passed 160 mph (257 km/h) on the Mulsanne straight and won the 1,300 cc class at the Reims 12 Hours.

Renault takes over: A310, V6 and Le Mans

The oil crisis of 1973 hurt sales of small sports cars, and Alpine's output fell from 1,421 cars in 1972 to 957 in 1974. Renault, which already supplied the engines, took control of Alpine in 1973. At the end of 1976 Alpine's competition department was merged into Renault Sport.

The A310 had arrived in 1971, the last model launched under Rédélé, and was sold alongside the A110 for six years. In 1976 Robert Opron reshaped it and Renault fitted the 2.6-litre PRV V6, shared with Peugeot and Volvo. From 1977 the A310 V6 was Alpine's only model, and in 1981 it received suspension parts from the Renault 5 Turbo.

The biggest win came at Le Mans in 1978, when Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud won the 24 Hours in the turbocharged Renault Alpine A442B. Dieppe also became Renault's factory for small-series sports cars: it built the Renault 5 Alpine from 1976, 5,112 mid-engined Renault 5 Turbos and 1,685 Renault Sport Spiders.

GTA and A610: the last Alpines of the first era

The Renault Alpine GTA replaced the A310 in 1984, and a V6 Turbo version followed in 1985 with about 150 kW (200 hp) and a top speed of about 240 km/h (150 mph). In 1990 a wide-bodied GTA Le Mans was built in 325 examples, 299 with left-hand drive and 26 with right-hand drive.

The A610 of 1991 was a heavily revised GTA with a 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 and better equipment. Only 818 were made: 751 with left-hand drive and 67 with right-hand drive. The last A610 left the Dieppe line on 7 April 1995, and Renault stopped using the Alpine name. Dieppe moved on to the Renault Sport Spider and later to Renault Sport models such as the Clio, whose last mainstream RS version was built there in 2018. Renault Sport's other hot hatch, the Mégane RS, carried the same badge.

The revival: Caterham, Celebration and the new A110

The road back took several attempts. In 2012 Renault showed the A110-50 concept for the original car's 50th anniversary, and in November 2012 it agreed to sell half of Alpine to Caterham. The partnership did not last: Renault bought the stake back on 10 June 2014. The Alpine Celebration concept at Le Mans in June 2015 and the Alpine Vision of February 2016 led to the production car. The story of those concepts is told in our page on the Alpine Celebration concept.

The new A110 was revealed at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2017, after official pictures on 28 February. It is a mid-engined two-seater with a 1.8-litre turbo engine of 185 kW (252 PS) and a weight of 1,103 kg. The Dieppe plant, with 3.8 hectares of buildings and 386 employees in 2019, built about 15 A110s a day. When petrol A110 production ended in mid-2026, 28,701 had been made, by far the best-selling Alpine. You can check how its 185 kW and 1,103 kg compare with other cars in our power-to-weight calculator.

Alpine as Renault's sports and electric brand

In September 2020 Renault announced that its Formula One team would race as Alpine from 2021. In January 2021 Renault Sport was merged into Alpine, and in May 2021 Renault Sport Cars was renamed Alpine Cars. The history of Renault explains how Alpine fits into the group, next to Renault, Dacia and Mobilize.

The brand then turned to electric power. The Alpenglow concept appeared in 2022, the A290β concept in 2023 and the production A290, Alpine's first electric car, in 2024. The A290 was named Car of the Year in 2025. The A390β concept of 2024 previewed a sporty electric crossover. Alpine has also announced plans to enter the US market.

Legacy and collecting

By 2025, its 70th anniversary year, Alpine estimated that about 45,000 cars had been built under its name, about 25,000 of them after 2017. More than 1,000 Alpines came to Dieppe for the anniversary, around 2.5 % of everything the company had produced.

For collectors, the original A110 Berlinette is the icon, and rally-specification cars with a documented history are the most valuable. The A106 and A108 are rarer but less known outside France. The A310 V6, the GTA and the A610 are the affordable way into a classic Alpine, though parts for the PRV V6 and the glassfibre bodies need specialists. Before buying any classic Alpine, check:

• The chassis: the steel backbone under the glassfibre body can rust.
• Originality: many A110s were modified for rallying, so check numbers and documents.
• The body: glassfibre repairs can hide accident damage.

The modern A110 is the easiest Alpine to own and use. Our car comparison tool sets it against rivals such as the Porsche Cayman.