Renault Alpine Celebration Concept arrives at Le Mans

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The Alpine Celebration Concept has been revealed at Le Mans by Renault, clearly signposting what we can expect from the production Alpine in 2016.

The return of the Alpine performance brand from Renault came in to focus with the arrival of a joint venture between Caterham and Renault and the Alpine A11o-50 Concept in 2012.

But by spring last year, the Alpine venture with Caterham ended, with the project moving forward just with Renault at the helm in a new company – Société des Automobiles Alpine.

Now, we start to see the fruits of Alpine’s labours in the last year or so with the arrival of this, the Alpine Celebration Concept, revealed at Le Mans and created to celebrate 60 years of Alpine – but clearly pointing towards what we can expect for the production version of the Alpine in 2016.

There are lots of design cues pointing to Alpine’s past, with its contoured bonnet and headlights evoking the old A110 Berlinetta, retro-looking alloys and the iconic blue and orange paint job screaming Alpine.

Renault’s aims for the Alpine are for a low weight to enable a smaller engine to provide impressive performance – a similar ethos to the Alfa 4C – so we’re guessing, because Renault aren’t saying, that the Alpine has the 1.6 litre turbo from the Clio or the 2.0 litre turbo from the Megane sitting in the middle and powering the rear wheels.

Something around 250bhp seems about right for the Alpine, with a dual-clutch ‘box rather than a manual one, and with a weight of around 1100kg it should have a decent turn of speed, and be nimble and dynamic. It’s also expected to cost around £50k when it arrives next year – bang on the same money as the 4C.

The Alpine Celebration Concept is due at the Goodwood Festival of Speed later this month, so with any luck we’ll see it in action on the hillclimb and get a clearer idea of what’s under the skin.