Ahead of its on-sale date early next year, the two-seater A110 will be seen in action for the very first time in the UK as it takes on the famous hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

A member of Alpine’s victorious rallying heritage – the A310 – will also be running up the hill as part of the Touring Car, NASCAR, Drift & Rally group, while – on static display – Alpine will showcase the very car that won outright at the 1978 Le Mans 24 hour race, the A442 B. 

The presence of these cars, both past and present, says Alpine, is to underline the marque’s history and provide an insight into its future.

The 1978 Alpine A442 B is the racecar that won Alpine outright victory in the 1978 Le Mans 24 Hours, with Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and Didier Pironi. Its success was the culmination of five years of work, the A442 B evolving from the first normally-aspirated A440, the A441 and then the turbocharged 442. There were many wins in Sport World Championship events on the way, but plenty of heartache before Alpine’s ultimate goal was scored.

The A442 B was powered by a 2.0 litre turbocharged V6 that enabled it to hit a staggering 223mph on the Mulsanne straight and set what was then the fastest-ever lap time recorded by an Alpine at La Sarthe. On the day of its victory Renault President and CEO Bernard Hanon, who had set Alpine’s Le Mans goal, announced that the team would withdraw from endurance racing to contest Formula One. 

The 1977 Alpine A310 succeeded the A110 starting production in 1971. Larger and – from 1976 – with a V6 engine, the A310 had great success in French rallying as a Group 4 car, winning the French Rally Championship in 1977 with Guy Frequelin behind the wheel. 

The 2017 Alpine A110 was launched at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show earlier – a mid-engined two-seater sports coupe true to the spirit of the A110 ‘Berlinette’. It has an aluminium platform and body and weighs 1,080kg. It’s compact in size (4178mm long, 1798mm wide and 1252mm high) with a low centre of gravity and 44%/56% front/rear weight distribution which bestows it with great agility, says Alpine.

The A110 is powered by a new 1.8-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine developing 252hp and maximum torque of 320Nm which enables it to accelerate from 0 to 62mph in 4.5 seconds.

First deliveries of the Alpine A110 in the UK are expected to begin in early 2018.