Anyone seen an Alpine like this?

[Sherlock]

One of my Flickr contacts from Australia posted a photo of a unique Alpine roadster (1960's) with an unusual rear-end, the car indicates that is has a body custom-built by Harrington (I assume the same Harrington that made the coupes), photos here:

Perhaps a factory race car?

 

[aeronca65t]

James:

The "revenge light" made me think that it is more of a rally car than a road racing car, but the "aero tail" seems to indicate that it's built for higher speed (less important in a rally).

So I Googled the car number and found a reference to that number as a former LeMans car that was possibly used in rallys by the factory...go here:

https://saoca.org/protected/forum/showthread.php?t=329

There's also a picture available, but you have to register to view it (I'm not registered on SAOCA). I see one of the guys from here is part of the post on that link.

 

[Tullamore]

The design of the rear does not look like any Harrington I have ever seen.

 

[sunbeam74]

It is one of the 1962/63 LeMans Alpines. I believe 9201 and 9203 still exist and wasn't it 9202 that was stolen from a garage and never seen again? (I need to look back at a couple of magazines to verify that)

Anyway, these cars were modified for the LeMans event by Harrington.

This website tells a bit about the racing cars...

https://www.harringtonalpine.org/racing/index_racing.htm

Steve

 

[Silverghost]

If the tags are accurate it would seem the car in the picture is 9201? I presume that's what the 9201 RW indicates
?

 

[sunbeam74]

Exactly, these numbers reference the number plate. Just like the year before at Le Mans there was 3000 RW, which was the Harrington Alpine (fastback looking Alpine), and then 3001 RW which was the GT configuration.

Neat Alpines... Odd that so few, in my opinion, of the factory Alpines survived.

Steve