Alpine: queen of the mountains?

Réédition partielle de la collection Alpine Renault - Construisez l’Alpine A110 1600S Berlinette

HILL-CLIMBING

The Alpine is famous for rallying, but it also performed well in a closely related discipline, hill-climbing, including the famous Mont Ventoux race.

With such a name, one would expect that Jean Rédélé's Alpines were the queens of the slopes! However, they were considerably less well known in the Championnat de France de la Montagne (the French hill-climbing championship) than in rallying... "Hill climbs, commonly known in motoring terminology as "la côte", allow drivers to perfect their fast, very fast driving skills on winding courses with a succession of tight bends and twists and turns.

The French Mountain Championship was first held in 1967, thus coinciding with the arrival of the A110 Berlinetta. However, hill-climbing races did of course exist before the launch of this championship. The earliest recorded one was held near Nice in 1897! The particularly festive nature of hill-climb races should be emphasised, not only because of their location, often in attractive natural settings, but also because of the mix of genres they involve. Traditionally, cars and motorbikes are mixed together - it's one of the rare occasions that these two specialities race together - and the cars range from large single-seaters (Formula 1 cars have even been seen there in the past) to barely-prepared touring sports cars.

The best known races were those of Mont Ventoux, not far from Avignon, Limonest, near Lyon, and the Col de la Faucille, near the Swiss border. No Alpine team has ever won the scratch championship since it was created in 1967, which is perfectly understandable given that the winning cars tend to be very powerful single-seaters, with the best being the Martini, usually powered by a BMW engine, that has taken the championship 20 times in just under 50 years! It's hard to beat these lightweight single-seaters - which are not road-legal, of course - with their powerful 2-litre engines. The Alpines, although rather featherweights in their class, are still heavier and less powerful. The A110s, in particular, distinguished themselves for more than 10 years in Group IV.

The early days of Alpine

The first Alpine cars date back to the late 1950s, but to fully understand their history, we need to go back to the 4CV. The little Renault made a name for itself both on the hill and in rallies (the Alpine brand was named after Jean Rédélé's racing success with his 4CV). It was followed by the Dauphine and then the R8, as the Alpine increased in power by borrowing its interior components. With the creation of the A106, based on the 4CV, in 1956, the Alpine took the lead over its rivals, even though the 4CV '1063' continued to be a frequent podium finisher.

It was simply that the extremely rare Alpine was not, as yet, present at all the events. At Mont Ventoux, for example, while the 4CV had dominated its category for 10 years, Otto Petrus's A106 finished 7th in its category in 1959 with a time of 16' 41'', whereas the 4CV's replacement, the Dauphine, finished second in its category, but was almost a minute behind the Alpine's time. This was because the Renault, built in very large series, was able to race in the Touring category, whereas the Alpine, a more confidential car, had to compete in the GT category, where the competition was much fiercer.

In 1971, during a hill climb, a Berlinette goes off the bend. Hillclimbing is also about the change of light between shadow and blinding sun. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Renault D.R. / Archives et Collections

The Mont Ventoux experience

In the 1960s, the A108 and then the A110 were launched, in increasingly competitive versions: this was the Alpine explosion, involving not just rallying but also hill-climbing. In 1960 at Mont Ventoux, Alpine won for the first time: while the local driver, Maurice Trintignant, took the scratch time of less than 12' with his Formula 2 Cooper-Climax, Condrier won the GT category in 14' 23'' (compared with 16' 41'' the previous year).

Up to 1965, the Alpines continued to make their mark, but that year, while the record was raised to 11' 16'' by the Abarth single-seater driven by the German Hermann, they won the top five places in their class! The best was Reynaud's A110, with a time of 14' 18'': it's worth mentioning the rapid improvement in performance over the years... But Vidal's F3 Alpine also won its class in 12' 15''. From then on, the Alpines were always at the front. Mauro Bianchi won the 'Sports Car' category in 1966, winning the race in 12' 20'', but in several other categories there were Alpines at the front. The following years, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970, saw nothing but a series of demonstrations by Alpine, always winning at least one category. In the latter year, Ortner (Abarth) won the race in 10' 04'', while Ortelli won Group IV in 12' 25'' with his Berlinette.

The glorious 1970s

The 1970s were the years of Alpine, and especially the years of the A110. At Mont Ventoux, the Berlinette kicked off this decade by winning two categories in 1971, and the following year it did the same, winning the climb in 11' 28'', while Andruet finished second overall in the A360 F2, powered by one of Renault's first turbo engines! In 1973, when the road surface was upgraded, some of the bends were changed and the race was slightly shortened from 21.60 to 21.48 km. The difference was admittedly small, but it made time comparisons almost meaningless, which did not stop the Alpines from continuing to score class victories.

After two years - 1974 and 1975 - of disruption, the hill climb returned to normal in 1976, but on a course that was now only 15.6 km long. The Alpine A110s still won Class 3, but Mieusset's A441 took 3rd place, behind the Porsches and BMWs, some of which were more than twice as powerful. But the Ventoux hill-climb proved to be a thing of the past, and the event was discontinued. It would resume, in a different form, twelve years later... but in the world of modern cars, where Alpine A110s no longer had their place.

The other races

The Mont Ventoux hillclimb is just one of the most famous examples, but the Alpine pattern was repeated pretty much everywhere in other hillclimb races: a rise in power during the 1960s, class domination during the 1970s, until more modern cars arrived to take the place of the Berlinettes, as was the case in rallying. The A110s fought it out with the Porsche 911s, the former making the most of their agility in the hairpins, and the latter using their power to get out of them.

A random example: the hill climb of Vuillafans-Echevannes, in Franche-Comté, in 1975, which accounts for the French Mountain Championship. In Group IV, there were twenty-one cars: fourteen A110s (1300 to 1800), six Porsches (2800 or 3000) and one lonely Fiat X1/9. For the record, it was a Porsche that won ahead of an Alpine. Subsequently, A310s took over from A110s, but with rather less success, as they did in rallying. The A110 were part of the French Mountain Championship calendar for almost fifteen years, from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1970s; today, it can be found in the historic races that are flourishing all over the country, better prepared than ever!

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The Le Marquis adventure

The very first Alpine was designed by the Italian stylist Michelotti... but was never called an "Alpine"! Jean Rédélé gave it the name "Renault Spéciale", because it was built on a 4CV base. Later renamed 'Le Marquis', this car made an attempt to be marketed in the USA. It all started like a novel: a dashing young businessman with big teeth, Jean-Pierre Rédélé commissioned a special car from a renowned Italian stylist. The designer presented Rédélé with a final design that he liked, and then delivered him the 4CV that would serve as the basis for his future coupé. In contrast to all the Alpine cars that followed, this "number zero" would not have a polyester body, but an aluminium one, using the techniques of the master coachbuilders of the day. By the end of 1952, the car was ready. Rédélé had just got married, so the itinerary for his honeymoon was obvious: a journey through Italy and France in a made-to-measure coupé!

Always improving

When he returned to work, Jean Rédélé thought about improving the car, by adding a little more weight to the front end - a common defect in 4CVs - and making a few cosmetic changes.

Rédélé and his friend Louis Pons, also a Renault dealer, had bought the rights to a highly efficient five-speed gearbox for the 4CV from André Georges Claude. The coupé was to be fitted with this gearbox. The engine was boosted by a range of parts from specialist Satecmo, which supplied many high-performance components for the '1063' engine, including a full cylinder head and a large carburettor. Jean Rédélé, a shrewd strategist, wanted to involve Renault in his future projects, and it was under the name Renault Spéciale that the car was entered in the 1953 Dieppe Rally. Rédélé won the event ahead of a Jaguar and a Porsche. That same year, he competed at the Rouen-Les Essarts circuit, where he won the under-750cc class. As the season went on, an American industrialist and sports car enthousiast, Zark Reed, ended up as the winner.

The Marquis" was even the subject of an advertising brochure promoting all the qualities of a "modern sports car". © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Renault D.R. / Archives et Collections

Convincing the American industrialist

At the time, Reed had an idea. A significant proportion of young Americans at the time had acquired solid financial resources, and small European sports cars (particularly British) were selling like hotcakes in America. He believed there was a market to be explored, especially since he was the head of a company that made boat hulls from polyester, a new material that had been introduced during the Second World War, and which was drowned in resin to obtain a strong, lightweight synthetic mould. This technology was still in its early days for cars, but Reed believed in it, and the Renault Spéciale appealed to him: with a polyester body, it would be affordable, and competitive with British sports cars. At the time, Renault was thinking about introducing the 4CV in the United States. So why not a sports version? But Reed already had a number of competing projects on the drawing board, in particular that of former motor racing champion Louis Rosier, also a coupé based on the 4CV. Using his industrial power, Reed convinced Renault management to supply him with complete 4CV platforms, which he intended to import into the United States and then build the bodywork in his factory.

The showroom window of the Renault Washington dealer in 1955. Inside, you can see the star of the show: the 4CV! © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Renault D.R. / Archives et Collections

The Le Marquis adventure

It was Rédélé who won the deal. Reed bought the rights to manufacture the Renault Spéciale, christened "Le Marquis", which had a welcome French connotation because in the US, France had a good image in terms of elegance and luxury... if not in terms of cars. But Jean Rédélé was thinking further ahead than just licensing the product to an American; in return for a sale at a favourable price, he asked for the rights, the tools and the know-how necessary to manufacture this polyester bodywork, a new technology with a bright future. However, things worked out rather badly in the United States: Reed was not very familiar with polyester technology when applied to cars, and his engineer had not taken into account the implications of a rear-mounted engine, something virtually unheard of in America: as a result, the car was constantly overheated... because of all these problems, the car was a failure. But the Norman didn't give up hope and turned once again to coachbuilder Allemano for a second, sharper car. Delivered in 1954 in aluminium, the car lived up to his expectations, with its 900cc engine developing 58bhp. Meanwhile, his father-in-law Charles Escoffier had already signed a contract with another workshop, Chappe et Gessalin, to build a small series of coupés, again based on the 4CV, with polyester bodywork. It was this car that eventually became the first Alpine, not before the Renault Spéciale-Le Marquis provided the very first base for the first Alpine.

Another USA version of the 4CV, with its white-sided tyres, photographed beneath a New York bridge in 1950. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés. Crédits photo © Renault D.R. / Archives et Collections

A SPECIAL DISCIPLINE

A hill climb takes place on a road usually open to traffic, and closed for the occasion, just like a rally special stage, to which it is related. But the difference is that a rally involves a number of hill-climb-race-style special stages on the connecting route, whereas a hill-climb is a short sprint, lasting from one to fifteen kilometres, where the slightest mistake eliminates any chance of victory. Each competitor departs separately and battles against the clock. Drivers have the right to one, or even two or three practice climbs, and two or three official climbs. There are several categories for cars (or motorbikes), but all favour engines with the strongest torque, the best acceleration and high agility. It was this last characteristic that allowed Alpine cars to excel.