Renault’s revived sub-brand releases a virtual supercar to whet our appetite for a new road car.
[Not a valid template]In case you’re unfamiliar with Alpine, it’s a French brand of racing and sports cars that started in the 1950s, was bought by Renault in the ’70s and stopped making cars in the ’90s.
Until the 2010s, anyway. Renault is bringing Alpine back, and has released a couple of concept cars over recent years, as well as a Alpine-branded racing car that took part in the European Le Mans Series last year.
We’ve yet to see a proper road car from Alpine, but we’re assured it’s coming. In the meantime, here’s a virtual car to keeo you amusing. The Alpine Vision Gran Turismo is the latest in a long line of cars built solely for computer gaming. If you have a PlayStation and Gran Turismo 6, you too can experience the magic of Alpine. And if you don’t have that particular system, you can see a full-scale model at the Festival Automobile International in Paris, which runs until February 1.
The Vision Gran Turismo was inspired by the A450 race car mentioned above, and its creation followed an in-house competition that saw Alpine staff submit 15 different designs. The winner is this one, by Victor Sfiazof, and boasts numerous design references to Alpines of the past while remaining decidedly futuristic at the same time. In fact, it also contains elements from a new Alpine we’ll see in 2016, but the spoilsports won’t tell us which bits.
In the virtual world, it has a carbon monocoque, double wishbone suspension with pushrods, a mid-mounted V8 engine with 450 horsepower and a top speed of 320kph. Sounds fun. Now, show us something real please.
Source – Gran Turismo TV
