Thursday 2nd March 2017

Renault GTA/A610: Catch It While You Can

Alpine is back - is now the time to catch an old one as interest revives?

---

Is Alpine done launching its new A110 yet? No? Next week, you say? Jolly good. Let's hope that turns out to be the actual, definitive unveiling, rather than just another teaser. And while we wait to find out, let's fill the time with a trip back to the brand's last endeavour.

But what to call it? Were we anywhere else in the world, there'd be no question - both the original GTA and its heavily facelifted A610 successor would be known as Alpines. But here in the UK, thanks to a pre-existing trademark conflict ('Alpine' already being owned by Talbot), the GTA wore Renault badging, while the A610 simply wore an 'A' logo with no further manufacturer branding whatsoever although officially it, too, was a Renault.

The GTA was first released in 1985 in two forms. There was the naturally-aspirated 2.8-litre V6, its 160hp output and eight-second 0-62mph time pitting it against cars like the Porsche 944, Ford Capri 2.8 Injection and Toyota Celica Supra. And there was the 2.5-litre V6 Turbo, with a boost to 200hp and a 0-62mph time of seven seconds.

If none of these figures sounds all that exhilarating, it's probably because they weren't. Then again, it's claimed (as it so often is with cars of this era) that the acceleration times at least were conservative; What Car?, for example, is said to have timed a Turbo to 60mph (note, not 62mph) in just 5.8 seconds - considerably more impressive.

Either way, you still got terrific traction thanks to that rear-mounted engine, and thanks to diligent set-up work by Renault, the GTA did without any of the terrifying tail-happy tactics so often associated with that layout. Sure, it would sling its tail wide under power if you provoked it, but it would do so slowly; meanwhile, up front, the well-weighted, communicative steering turned the nose in deftly, making the GTA a delightful thing in which to make progress.

By 1991, though, the competition had well and truly overtaken the GTA. Ford could sell you a family saloon with more power than either model, for example, while the Lotus Carlton would have obliterated it. An upgrade was sorely needed, then. Enter the A610. Gone was the naturally-aspirated option, leaving only the Turbo variant, whose PRV V6 was enlarged to three litres, gaining a 50hp power upgrade in the process.

That meant the A610 Turbo had a far healthier official 0-62mph time of 5.7 seconds, pitching it well and truly into Porsche 911 territory. But by now the Renault brand was too closely associated with the car, leaving it looking rather less desirable than any Porsche. The same could be said for the plasticky interior, and the fast-becoming-passe pop-up headlamps. As a result, despite a four-year production run, just 67 right-hand-drive examples were sold.

That makes the A610 the most valuable of the bunch today, but even then its prices aren't where you might expect. Anything vaguely potent and interesting from the late 1980s or early 1990s is now looking like a prime suspect for a price hike, yet a decent, usable A610 Turbo recently went for just £10,400 on eBay. That, frankly, seems like a bargain, but it isn't the only one. We've seen early naturally-aspirated V6s going for around the £8,000 mark, and a GTA Turbo over in Northern Ireland is currently for sale asking around £11,000.

Even the most immaculate, concours-condition A610s with showroom mileages aren't stratospherically pricey, as we discovered this time last year. £39,995 is a lot of money to pay for an A610, but compare this to what you'd pay for a Porsche 993 or a Ford Sierra Cosworth with similar mileage, and suddenly it seems less so.

What's more, when Alpine does finally launch its new car proper, you can expect these values to start to rise. Once the marque is back in the public consciousness, people are going to start to rediscover Alpines of old - and when they do, it's a pretty surefire bet that prices will jump into line with similar 1980s fayre. So get in quick - and thank your lucky stars that the lengthy gestation of the new Alpine has lasted as long as it has.

[Uncle Ron]

Much prefer the looks of the A310 personally but either way they were both big money back in the day and I wouldn't be surprised to see values picking up with the return of the brand.