What's the news?
Ahead of the on-sale debut of the road-going Alpine A110, Renault is taking the revived sports car brand back to the racetrack, with the Alpine A110 Cup.
The A110 Cup series till take place over six races across Europe in 2018, and it has been designed to be affordable to enter and run one of the cars. The 270hp, 1,050kg A110 race car will cost €100,000 (pretty cheap for a front-line racer) and the series will cost around another €120,000 to enter and run in, with potential prize money of as much as €160,000 to help competitors defray some of the cost. It'll be exclusive too - only around 20 cars will be sold and allowed to compete.
There will be two 30 minute races at each of the six meetings, and tracks to be included in the season will be such classic locations as Paul Ricard, Silverstone, and Spa-Francorchamps.
The cars for the series will be engineered and built by the same Signatech squad that runs the Alpine A470 chassis in the LMP2 category of the Le Mans 24hrs, so they have a racing pedigree before they even get started. The A110s are designed around purpose-built Ohlins racing suspension and Michelin slick tyres, and come with massive Brembo brakes, and a full suite of safety kit including a six-point harness and an automatic fire extinguisher system.
Bernard Ollivier, Alpine Deputy Managing Director said that "the fact we have created the Alpine A110 Cup and a dedicated competition in which they will compete, the Alpine Europa Cup, is yet further evidence of our love of motor racing. We wanted the A110 Cup to be a genuine race car, a particularly refined machine equipped with high-end features geared towards performance. Alpine Europa Cup competitors will therefore be able to enjoy driving a very beautiful car, which will set new standards in terms of efficiency. The organisation of the competition will also meet Alpine's demanding requirements, featuring rigour and professionalism on the track, but a fun and friendly atmosphere in the paddock. The Alpine Europa Cup will equally be used as a means of reaching out to our community of fans throughout Europe."
Philippe Sinault, Managing Director of Signatech said: "here at Signatech, we are very proud to have been chosen to work on such a comprehensive project. From the design office to the assembly workshop, and including the team responsible for organising the Alpine Europa Cup, all of our expertise has been brought to bear in order to comply with the specifications set out by Alpine. The A110 Cup is an uncompromising car as regards its features, with a key objective: provide drivers with lots of enjoyment. This can be seen in many ways, whether you consider perceived quality, the quest for efficiency, ergonomics, etc. Before a field of twenty or so A110 Cups line up at the Circuit Paul Ricard, we still have a lot of work to do, with the development and then production of the cars. It's an exciting challenge, both for Signatech and for Alpine."