Renault And Caterham Join Forces, Resurrect Alpine
For a while, TTAC has been following rumors that Renault may be reviving is storied Alpine brand. Renault will do it, together with another motor celebrity, Caterham.
Renault and Caterham will start a joint venture to make sports cars. Renault and Caterham will each own half of the resurrected Automobiles Alpine Renault company, which will change its name to Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham. The company will be managed by Bernard Ollivier, a Renault director.
Each company will launch its own vehicle within the next three to four years.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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The Alpine in the picture is more than thirty years old; it won't look much like that.
It's been sounding like they are going to do a $35K-$55K sports car to capture the old Elise market. I hope they can get it through US crash testing.
Well, some good news out of the European auto industry for once. Lancias may become badge-swapped Chryslers, but at least there will be new Alpines and newer and better Caterhams.
Didn't Clarkson praise the Alpine highly (the 90s one) in the same review as the Venturi Atlantique (one of my favorite non-US-90s cars).