Renault Alpine A 110-50 Concept

Remember on Wednesday when that mysterious new Alpine concept started popping up all over the internet? Well it turns out that it wasn’t a photoshop at all. It was the real deal. And Renault have just officially introduced the car to the world.

The Renault Alpine A 110-50 is indeed a homage to the Renault Alpine A110, and it was created to celebrate the cars 50th anniversary, as well as help reinvigorate the Renault brand.

Designer Yann Jarsalle and Concept and Show Car Director Axel Breun reinterpreted the design cues of the original car to include the new Renault design language introduced by Laurens van den Acker with theDeZir concept, a style which will be rolled out across the company’s future models. “For everybody on the team, it was a dream come true to work on an Alpine concept car. We wanted to put this car firmly in the modern day, while resonating with its heritage” Laurens van den Acker, Senior VP, Corporate Design.

The Renault Alpine A 110-50 is a fairly high-tech bit of kit. The bodywork is all carbon fiber, and on the inside you’ll find a competition-inspired cockpit fitted out with racing equipment. The car uses the same tubular chassis as the Mégane Trophy race car, although for the Alpine A 110-50 it has been modified and stiffened.

The engine is a 3.5 litre 24-valve 400 horsepower V6 mounted in a mid-rear position. Many of the engine internals have been upgraded for better performance and reliability. The engine ingests air via the same carbon air intake used on the Mégane Trophy V6. However for the A 110-50 a roof mounted air intake is used to channel air to the engine. A remapp makes sure the engine takes full advantage of the new hardware.

The Renault Alpine A 110-50′s transmission is a semi-automatic sequential unit which uses a twin-plate clutch and is controlled using steering wheel mounted paddles. All pretty nifty stuff that would have made its grandfather rather proud.

While the Renault Alpine A 110-50 should get any and every car enthusiasts heart racing just a few beats per minute faster, its still not clear whether the car marks the first steps towards the return of Alpine and some great sports cars along the way. Or whether this is just some flash-in-the-pan concept car designed to distract people while Renault continue making (for the most part) fairly dull cars.