Alpine A310

Alpine was founded in 1955 in Dieppe as a specialist in competition and sporting road cars based largely on Renault components. The A110 had established a strong reputation, culminating in its victory at the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally and the World Rally Championship. However, Rédélé recognised that the A110's narrowly focused character limited its sales potential; he sought a second model capable of volume sales comparable to the Porsche 911 in the GT segment.

The A310 debuted at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show. It used a tubular steel backbone chassis — the same construction philosophy as the A110 — clothed in a fibreglass shell moulded in a single piece. The engine was mounted longitudinally in the rear, driving forward to the wheels through a manual five-speed gearbox, a layout shared with the Renault 5 Turbo and, coincidentally, the DeLorean, which used the same PRV V6 that would later power the A310.

The early A310 production run, from 1971 to 1976, used a tuned version of Renault's 17TS/Gordini four-cylinder engine with twin 45 DCOE Weber carburetors, producing 127 PS. The car was given six headlamps. Despite the capable chassis, the early A310 was criticised for being heavier and less powerful than its predecessor relative to its size, leaving performance short of expectations. A lower-cost variant, the A310 SX, was introduced in 1976 with a 95 PS version of the Renault 16/17's 1647 cc four-cylinder engine.

The significant transformation came in 1976, when Robert Opron restyled the A310 and the four-cylinder engine was replaced by the 2664 cc V6 PRV engine — a 90-degree unit developed jointly by Peugeot, Renault, and Volvo and used across several models from all three manufacturers. With 150 PS, the A310 V6 was capable of 220 km/h and offered substantially improved performance. The tail-heavy weight distribution produced handling characteristics frequently compared to those of the contemporary Porsche 911.

The V6 model received a black plastic rear spoiler as part of its specification, and from model year 1981 the rear suspension was updated to the design used in the mid-engined Renault 5 Turbo. The three-lug wheels were also replaced by the alloys from the 5 Turbo at this point.

Sales improved following the V6 introduction, more than doubling the figures achieved by the four-cylinder car. The best year was 1979, when 781 A310s were sold in France. Nevertheless, the car was unable to sustain momentum without further updates, and by 1984 fewer than five hundred were sold in France annually, compared to around 1,600 Porsches in Germany.

In the final model years of 1983 and 1984, a "Pack GT" specification inspired by the Group 4 A310 rally cars was offered. It featured wider wheel arches and more aggressive front and rear spoilers. A small number of A310 V6 Pack GT "Kit Boulogne" examples were built — approximately 27 — in which the PRV V6 was bored out to 2.9 litres and fitted with triple Weber 42DCNF carburetors, raising power to 193 PS.

The A310 entered rallying in 1973 as the designated successor to the A110 in the World Rally Championship. Results were mixed compared to the phenomenal success of its predecessor. In 1977, Guy Fréquelin won the French Rally Championship driving an Alpine Renault A310 V6. The car competed in Group 4 specification with considerable success in French national motorsport, and in 1983 it moved into the Group B rally category before the end of its production life.

The A310 was a notably labour-intensive car to build — each one took approximately 130 hours to complete from start to finish, reflecting its artisanal production origins. While the majority of its components came from the Renault parts shelf, the car incorporated some surprising borrowings from other manufacturers: the steering rack came from the Peugeot 504, while the turn signals were Simca 1301 units.

The driving position was low and sporting, though the front wheelwells encroached on the occupants' feet, angling them toward the centre of the car. The front suspension was criticised early on, and in 1974 the ball-joint mountings were replaced by rubber-steel bushings to improve durability.

The Alpine A310 was the last model personally conceived by Jean Rédélé and marks the point at which Alpine attempted to transition from a niche competition-car maker into a broader GT manufacturer. While it never achieved its ambition of seriously rivalling the Porsche 911 commercially, it remains an important car in French automotive history and a direct ancestor of the modern Alpine brand. Production ended in 1984, with the A310 replaced by the Alpine GTA. In February 2025, Alpine announced a second-generation A310, based on the 800V Alpine Performance Platform, intended for launch in 2027 or 2028.