The last time we heard about the Renault-Caterham partnership, things weren’t going really well. Since the project to jointly develop a sports car started in 2012, progress was delayed by Renault’s decision to revise the initial design of its upcoming Alpine sports car. Caterham wasn’t thrilled at all with the decision, as this means its own version of the car had to be modified.
For reasons that do not need to be explained to an auto enthusiast, the Renault Alpine A110-50 concept study is one of those vehicles that you can never really get enough of, which is why we're bringing you another video of the French sports car.
This film was shot during the Alpine A110-50's speedy drive up the famous hillclimb course at last month's Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The Renault Alpine plant in Dieppe produced the 1,000th Clio Gordini RS model this month, less than a year after its introduction. Built since May 2010, the Clio Gordini RS is sold in 18 countries, most of them in Europe.
Renault revived the Gordini name at the end of 2009, when it presented the Twingo Gordini RS. Other members of the Gordini family include the Twingo Gordini and more recently, the Wind Gordini, which premiered at this year’s Geneva Motor Show.
An affordable, rear-wheel drive sports coupe from Renault bearing the historic Alpine moniker has been in the cards for years but the French carmaker has yet to launch a modern day successor to the last model to carry the Alpine name, the A610 from the mid 1990s.
After production of the A610 ended, Renault used the Alpine factory in Dieppe to manufacture the street-legal RenaultSport Spider, a lightweight two-seater model with a rear mid-engine layout built from 1995 to 1997, which was the French firm’s last bespoke sports car.
Over the years, we have seen many independent designers creating concept studies for a new Alpine coupe, the most recent being the one you see pictured above, which is the work of David Cardoso.