1972 Renault Alpine A110 1600S

model history

The Alpine A110 first appeared at the Paris Motor Show in 1962, designed by Giovanni Michelotti and the brainchild of Alpine founder, Jean Rédélé the car featured a steel backbone chassis with a fibreglass body. The significant difference to its predecessor, the Alpine 108, other than the use of components from the Renault 8 (as opposed to the Renault Dauphine) was the extended tail to accommodate the A110’s larger engine. 

The A110 was initially offered with the 1.1L Gordini engine that produced 95 bhp but displacement grew regularly with the 1.6L engine producing 138 bhp from 1970. Later models utilised fuel injection while the Group 4 rally cars were utilising a 1.8L unit by the time Alpine A110 production ended in 1977.  

The Alpine A110 achieved the peak of its fame in the early 1970s in rallying, winning the 1971 and 1973 Monte Carlo Rally as well as the 1971 International Championship for Manufacturers, the precursor to the World Rally Championship. The marque also achieved notable success in endurance racing with class wins at Le Mans in the 1960s and 1970s and more recently Renault has breathed new life into the marque with the new A110 in 2017 and the rebrand of their team within Formula 1. 

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this car

Chassis 17768 is a 1600S VB and was delivered new to France in January 1971 in Alpine Blue Metallic over a black interior. The French Alpine registry notes the car as having a ‘heavy earth-type body armor, a 364-type gearbox, large brakes and a 6-inch widened wings’. The car remained in France for the entirety of its life, occasionally being used in historic rallies, until the seller purchased and imported the car from Monaco-based car dealer DPM Motors in 2017 into the UK.

The car was then looked after by Chris Rabbet of RoadSpeed Performance, an Alpine specialist in Gloucestershire, who completed £13,000 of work for the owner in 2020 and 2021, developing the car and preparing it for use on road rallies. 

The current owner, an accomplished engineer in his own right, purchased the car from Sports Purpose last year and set about making further improvements to it in advance of participating on a road rally event in Northern France this spring.  

This work included improving engine fuelling, replacing the ignition system and an oil service amongst other work. Further tuning on a rolling road improved the cars tractability. 

The car retains its original engine and numerous original details which combine to present an authentic and unadulterated example of the ultimate roadgoing A110. The car maintains its original gauges, fuel tank, stampings, dashtop, headlining with Gotti 6 spoke wheels and Mod’Plastia bucket seats. 

A recent engine compression test confirmed the good health of the engine as have numerous miles on the road and at our test track at Bicester. 

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