The Société des Automobiles Alpine SAS, trading under the Alpine marque , was founded in the French city of Dieppe in 1955 by Jean Rédélé to produce both track and production sports cars.
Rédélé, became a familiar figure in round the race tracks of Europe in the immediate post war years, developed his own race car based closely on the Renault 4CV.
Driving his adapted 4CV, Rédélé brought home a number of trophies in his class, among them the Mille Miglia and Coupe des Alpes. With each success, Rédélé continued to modify the 4CV, adding a custom design five-speed gearbox as well as a series of specially produced lightweight aluminium bodies.
Encouraged by the development of these cars and consequent customer demand, he created the Alpine brand in 1954, after Rédélé’s Coupe des Alpes successes,
In 1955, Rédélé combined forces with the Paris based coachbuilder Chappe et Gessalin to be amongst the pioneers of auto glass fibre construction. Their collaboration brought about the release of the company’s first production car, the Alpine A106.
Alpine several successes through the 1950s and was joined by a low and stylish cabriolet. Styling for this car was contracted to the Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti. Under the glass fibre body was a very stiff chassis based on a central tubular backbone which was to be the hallmark of all Alpines.
Initially built for racing, in 1956, the A106 was released as a production car at the Paris Motor Show in 1957, Interest was high and sales encouraging leading to the eventual launch of a sports coupé, convertible and cabriolet version.
Real top-level success started in 1968 with outright wins in the Coupe des Alpes and other international events. By this time the competition cars were fitted with 1440 cc engines derived from the Renault R8 Gordini.
In 1962, Alpine announced the release of the A108, produced not only in France but also in Brazil, under license by the Willys-Overland, under the Willys Interlagos label, The A108 was produced in Berlinetta coupe and convertible formats.
This new model, the A110 Berlinetta Tour de France, named after a successful run with the Alpine A108 in the 1962 event. Starting with a 956-cc engine of 51 bhp (38 kW). The same chassis and body developed with relatively minor changes over the years to the stage where, by 1974, these relatively compact vehicles were being fitted with 1800 cc engines capable of developing 180 bhp.
Alpine achieved increasing success in rallying, and by 1968 had been allocated the whole Renault competition budget. The close collaboration allowed Alpines to be sold and maintained in France by main stream Renault dealerships.
Renault eventually acquired Alpine fully in 1973. Renault Alpine remains active today, producing high-performance sports cars known for their agility.
To reach his objective, in 1919, Renault began to slowly and inconspicuously buy parcels of lands on the Île Seguin Island, situated in the river Seine towards the southwest of Paris.
After he had acquired the entire island, Louis Renault invested a colossal sum of money constructing a state of the art production that covered the whole Île Seguin Island where Renault put into action the logistical practices learned in the US.
During the early Twenties, thanks to the extensive manufacturing facilities that they had at their disposal, Renault appeared to be ruling the roost in domestic car sales, capable of offering buyers a wide choice of options.
Despite the economy being strong, sales for the new models were not as Louis had hoped for, due to slow delivery times, caused by a combination of having to run a production schedule with so many permutations, lack of proper distribution facilities, and labour problems that the company was experiencing.
What didn’t help the situation was that Renault refused to compete in the " people's cars" sector which was growing in popularity, as money became scarcer towards the end of the decade.
As stubborn as he was driven, Louis Renault refused to accept the fact that with a choice of seven different models compared to the two or three that Citroen were offering at the same time, why his fiercest rival was slowly overtaking him in sales.
To Renault’s great chagrin Citroen eventually becoming the largest producers of motor cars in France during the early Thirties.
However, that situation was dramatically to reverse itself in 1934, when Citroen, severely overextended due to its owner’s Andre Citroen scant regard for careful fiscal management went bankrupt, and was rapidly acquired by Michelin Tire Company, their largest creditor.
Overnight Renault found themselves back at the top of the tree, not so much by the merits of the cars, and more by Louis’s strict insistence not to be dependent on France’s financial institutions.
The company, unlike Citroen, had successfully diversified into other areas, which helped to buy the time to see out the slump as well as look at the cars they were offering to the public and overcome the sales resistance they were encountering.
Renault eventually gave way to what should have been glaringly obvious, and by the late Thirties had downsized their range, albeit slightly, while offering two entry-level vehicles, the Celtaquatre which sold very well, but not enough to prevent it being replaced by the Juvaquatre in 1938.
After France had been overrun by the Nazis in 1940, all of the French car producers were forced to abandon producing cars and switch over to constructing military equipment, in particular, heavy vehicles for the Germans.
This meant that the Renault plants were legitimate and regular targets for Allied bombing, and they all suffered severe collateral damage, with the Billancourt plant being particularly hard hit.
For reasons that remain cloaked in mystery to this day, Louis Renault passed away while in custody awaiting trial in liberated France in late 1944.
Just 67 years old at the time of his passing, the often controversial Renault earned his place in history as one of the most innovative and socially conscious pioneers of the industry in France during the Twentieth century.
After his passing, the Société des Automobiles Renault, the company that Henri Renault personally nurtured through four decades was unceremoniously nationalised by the provisional government of France; the only company forced to work with Nazis to suffer this fate.
As was the mood of the times in immediate post-war France, the government appointed Pierre Lefaucheux, a former Resistance leader who had been held in of the Nazis' death camps for much of the war.
With absolutely no knowledge of car production, from day one Lefaucheux showed himself as a man of vision and judgment who was also prepared to listen.
This trait soon became apparent when the 4CV project was revealed to him, and he was made aware that Louis Renault had been clandestinely working on a project for the company, which had the Nazis discovered, would more than likely led to him coming before a firing squad.
Renault’s secret project was a next-generation “ people's car”, still known under its working title, the 4CV. The rear-engine 4CV captured the imagination of Lefaucheux, who gave the green light to put the vehicle into production.
The Renault 4CV was launched at the first post-war Paris motor show in October 1946 and was an outstanding success.
With a shortage of new cars around, demand for the 4CV was unprecedented, and with raw materials in short supply, a waiting list grew, which eventually reached as long as two years until raw material supply problems were ironed out.
To show how desperate the French were to take delivery of their new car, some of them were happy to accept their new car in “ Afrika-Corps” green paint left over from the Nazi occupation, originally meant for camouflaging trucks on their way to Africa.
Despite the not so pleasant paint colours and several other technical shortcomings, Renault had sold their half-millionth 4CV by 1954 with production ending finally in mid-1961, with more than a million having been sold.
Lefaucheux, who was awarded the Légion d'Honneur for his heroics during World War Two, lead Renault to consolidation and success well into the Fifties when tragically he lost his life as the result of a traffic accident.
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