Alpine 50th anneversary is in July!

[vagt6]

Saw this in "Thouroughbred and Classic Cars" magazine.

<span style="font-style: italic">The Alpine was launched in July 1959 at Cannes. Its prominent fins were a signature of stylist Kenneth Howes, trained in American design studios with Raymond Loewy, Studebaker and Ford.

Three Alpines were modified by Thomas Harrington works to race at the 1962 LeMans. Paddy Hopkirk and Peter Jopp drove the Harrington-bodied 9203RW modified Alpine, and Harper and Procter drove another. A third was a backup car. Two survive today. Both of the Alpines were DNF, but the legend remains.</span>

In fact, Harrington's grandson owns one of them, having compeltely restored it in 1998. It makes regular appearances to LeMans classic and Goodwood revival races.


Really nice cars, Alpines, and may be had for a song (relatively speaking) nowadays. I see nice examples on eBay and the regular sales venues for surprisingly low prices.

It's a mystery to me why there isn't far more interest (and thus, highter pricing) in these lovely LBCs.

Go figure . . .

 

[Roger]

Possibly the relative disinterest in Alpines is because relative to their contemporaries they were, to say the least, pedestrian. That Rootes pushrod lump was never much of a power producer and the Ford V8 for the Tiger was what the car needed.
But they were nicely fitted and looked OK.

 

[glemon]

I have a good friend that has two very nice Alpines, their obvious competitor then and now is the MGB, at least be seat of the pants feel at least the later Alpines are pretty much the same as far as speed and power, but the Alpine when new was generally considered more of a tourer than a sports car and that and the smaller numbers sold so smaller following I think keeps price down today, although I don't think the price is much different than a B, at least at the low and middle end of the market, but arguably the rarity factor should hive the Alpine a boost over the more common B, I guess the Alpine is rare more like a DeSoto (less common than Chevy's but still cheaper) than a Ferrari.

As far as the cars themselves they are stylish comfortable cruisers, in my opinion probably a little more advanced in engineering than a B, in these days when many of us a getting a little older, and the performance (but not the driving experience) of even many of the very best British sportsters from the 60s pales in comparison to modern cars, the Alpine makes a lot of sense as a stylish comfortable cruiser.

One thing they were way ahead of the curve on, saw a mid sixties ad for an Alpine, they offered a 4 year bumper to bumper warranty, I think many new cars were 6 months back then, pretty impressive.