The fact Renault flew a load of folk out to Monaco, shut off the quayside to line up 85 classic A110s and held a press conference hosted by group boss Carlso Ghosn goes some way to underline how seriously it's taking
The Alpine story, started by Jean Redele in 1955, is far bigger than one car. In motorsport it includes a Le Mans win in 1978, international rally championship victories (including the very first WRC) in 1971 and 1973, a huge number of domestic and European titles across all motorsport disciplines and, says Renault, "more than 1,000 individual event wins by amateur drivers at national and regional level in rallying, hillclimbs and autotests".
Then you've got the 26,666 road cars built up to 1995, from 1955's A104 to the A610 featured as a Spotted yesterday. The defining car from Alpine's history, and the one that has inspired the look of the brand's rebirth, is the A110 Berlinette, of which 7,579 were built by Alpine and a further 3,454 under licence in Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Bulgaria. Photographed here on Wednesday's Monaco launch event is an unusual view of a rally-prepped A110, ready to ferry guests up the nearby Col de Turini on which A110s scored six stage wins back in the day.