Puneet Varma (Editor)

Alpine A110 50

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Manufacturer
  
Renault

Designer
  
Yann Jarsalle

Body style
  
2-door coupe

Production
  
2012 (Concept car)

Class
  
Racing car

Alpine A110-50

Layout
  
Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout

The Alpine A110-50 is a concept racing car created by Renault to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Alpine A110 It debuted at Monaco’s GP circuit, where Renault Chief Operating Officer Carlos Tavares raced the A110-50 for four laps of the Monaco track.

The Alpine A110-50 has all carbonfibre bodywork, a mid-engine layout, and tubular frame. It is built upon the same platform and shares its mechanicals with the Sport Mégane Trophy race car. Because the A110-50’s height is lower than that of Mégane Trophy, the roll cage and bracing in the engine bay were lowered in the workshop of Tork Engineering. The entire car weighs a mere 1940 pounds, and its weight distribution is 47.8 percent front and 52.2 percent rear. With a naturally aspirated 395-hp variation of the Mégane Trophy’s 3.5-liter V6 based on the Nissan VQ engine, it has a 456bhp/ton power-to-weight ratio. The inlet manifold is fed by a new roof-mounted air intake which broadens the engine’s power band, with additional horsepower at all engine speeds.

A110-50's front splitter and rear diffuser generate ground effect, and account for a third of the car’s downforce, while the other two-thirds comes from the rear wing. The body can be raised with integrated pneumatic jacks for easier servicing. The steering wheel features a color screen and employs the same technology as a Formula Renault 3.5 single-seat race car. The A110-50 has highly adjustable double wishbone suspension with Sachs dampers. It utilises a six-speed semi-automatic sequential gearbox, which slots longitudinally behind the engine and incorporates a mechanical limited-slip differential.

Designer Yann Jarsalle and Concept and Show Car Director Axel Breun based the A110-50 on the same design language introduced with the DEZIR concept car, but incorporated several design cues from the original A110, These include: half-domed additional headlights with yellow tinted LED lighting; air intakes on each side echo the ducts on the rear wheel arches of the Berlinette; and painting the body in a modern version of the signature Alpine blue. The aerodynamic body was designed using a process called computational fluid dynamics.

References

Alpine A110-50 Wikipedia