Close your eyes a moment and imagine you’re gazing at an Alpine! There’s every chance you will picture it in blue. In the collective subconscious, that is the colour most readily associated with Renault Group’s sports car brand as a result of its use for race, rally and road cars over a period of decades. But, as Design Director Antony Villain explains, there isn’t just one Alpine Blue…
Yet blue was by no means the finish of choice in the early days. When founder Jean Rédélé first presented his early production to the then-Renault CEO Pierre Dreyfus at the Régie’s headquarters near Paris in 1955, he showed up with one blue car, one white and a third in red.
Then, when he made his first steps in motorsport behind the wheel of the diminutive A106, his steeds were either white or light blue. At the time, red, white and yellow were more popular than blue for Alpine’s road cars. Furthermore, the diminutive A106s that Rédélé ran in motorsport were either white or light blue.
