RE: Alpine A610: Spotted

[andy-stevo]

My old car.
I was always intrigued by the GTA when I was younger (I remember it being compared favourably to a Lotus Esprit Turbo in Motor, whilst the NA model did well against an Opel Monza and Lancia Gamma Coupe in What Car).
The previous owner spent God Knows how many hours restoring the car. A Renault nut - he also owned a Clio 172 Sport and Avantime when I bought the GTA and previously restored a Fuego.
A lovely looking thing which got loads of attention, sounded wonderful but tbh wasn't that great a driving experience.

[ianwayne]

Saw a nice one of these at the Shelsley Walsh hillclmbing last Sat. It was lovely sounding and may even have been on standard exhausts:

[LotusEspritTurbo]

Lovely cars!! Give me one of these over some crap German hair dressers car any day.

[B17NNS]

Marcus? Marcus Tandy?

[only1ian]

mike-r said:

That's awesome.

Reminded me of a thought today seeing an MR2. Cars with pop-up headlights, how do they flash people? I assume the lights can't really pop up and down that quickly.

Mike that was one of the great joys of mr2 mk1 ownership. Flash one pull of the lights and over about 3 seconds full pop up, flash and down. Pure theatre of the simple becoming exceptionally complicated

[Johnston]

Having owned one for 6 years, I can only say what a fabulous car they are. I particularly feel the colour of yellow brings out the best of the A610's sleek lines.

[Quickmoose]

great pic.
Comne on Renault bring back Alpine and no 'lip service'.
Give us a Elise/4C rival and then later, try and rival the 911 again!

[smilo996]

How the 944 should have looked. Even built by the same company as the badge on the car, unlike the 944.

[Alfa159Ti]

Johnston said:

Having owned one for 6 years, I can only say what a fabulous car they are. I particularly feel the colour of yellow brings out the best of the A610's sleek lines.

That is stunning. Love the wheels and stance.

[ant leigh]

Johnston said:

Having owned one for 6 years, I can only say what a fabulous car they are. I particularly feel the colour of yellow brings out the best of the A610's sleek lines.

It does looks great in yellow. Love these.
Renault have certainly produced some really interesting performance cars over the years.

[jdw100]

sparkey said:

I bought this one last week:



And I rather like it.

It's very "odd" with a strangely quiet V6 turbo hanging out the back which has a good dollop of 1980's turbo lag, but it has lots of rear grip and feels fast. Build quality is a bit French and the electrics seem rubbish, but it has lots of quirky bits that will probably make it fun to own as a weekend toy. It also looks great and smaller in the flesh (for some reason it always looks big in photos?) and it generates a lot of interest as most people don't know what it is.

"vive la difference"

S..

That looks fantastic!!

Brings back memories of a bright yellow one that a chap at the end of our road used to own.

Hope you really enjoy it.

[andy97]

I prefer the look of the GTA to the A610. Thought about buying one a good few years ago and test drove one in Cambridgeshire. It drove nicely but the interior seemed poor quality and the electrics were shocking - the speedo only worked for part of the drive, the electric windows started off not working, then did and then didn't and to cap it all I couldn't get out of the car because the linkage in the door lock mechanism failed.

Good to be different but only as a second or third car now though!

[blueg33]

andy97 said:

I prefer the look of the GTA to the A610. Thought about buying one a good few years ago and test drove one in Cambridgeshire. It drove nicely but the interior seemed poor quality and the electrics were shocking - the speedo only worked for part of the drive, the electric windows started off not working, then did and then didn't and to cap it all I couldn't get out of the car because the linkage in the door lock mechanism failed.

Good to be different but only as a second or third car now though!

The doors have two releases, electric one and mechanical one (handle down at the side of the seat), its rare for both to fail.

[paulyv]

mike-r said:

That's awesome.

Reminded me of a thought today seeing an MR2. Cars with pop-up headlights, how do they flash people? I assume the lights can't really pop up and down that quickly.

We certainly can. A pull back on the indicator stalk and the lights pop up and venture back down shortly thereafter. During the time they are up repeated taps on the stalk allow the lights to flash.

Always fun doing it in this day and age.

[omgus]

mike-r said:

That's awesome.

Reminded me of a thought today seeing an MR2. Cars with pop-up headlights, how do they flash people? I assume the lights can't really pop up and down that quickly.

You poor man, you need to drive a car with pop-up lights then you will understand.

My first MR2 was a single pull and the lights would raise, flash and drop.
My second was a two stage manoeuvre, pull to raise lights then pull to flash.

Pop Up lights are awesome.

[BGarside]

andy-stevo said:

My old car.
I was always intrigued by the GTA when I was younger (I remember it being compared favourably to a Lotus Esprit Turbo in Motor, whilst the NA model did well against an Opel Monza and Lancia Gamma Coupe in What Car).
The previous owner spent God Knows how many hours restoring the car. A Renault nut - he also owned a Clio 172 Sport and Avantime when I bought the GTA and previously restored a Fuego.
A lovely looking thing which got loads of attention, sounded wonderful but tbh wasn't that great a driving experience.

Prefer the GTA for look, especially in red with turbine alloys like this

[yes i'm mad]

Reminds me of this Top Gear video..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWGchdsJaA0

[Fastchas]

Funny how I noticed a Laguna on the way home yesterday after reading about the A610/Alpine and noticing the similarity in design.
Were these cars styled by the same person or design studio, does anyone know?

[Alfa159Ti]

Fastchas said:

Funny how I noticed a Laguna on the way home yesterday after reading about the A610/Alpine and noticing the similarity in design.
Were these cars styled by the same person or design studio, does anyone know?

At the expense of getting flamed I have always thought the Laguna of that generation was a very handsome car and has aged really well. Wonder what could have been if they had done a Renaultsport version...

[Dale487]

Looks like you won't find a better one - great colour too - but will never hold/appriate in value like the 993 Porsche.