Alpine Celebration Concept Unveiled At Le Mans

Alpine Celebration Concept 

 Renault has for some time now been gearing up to revive the Alpine marque with a new sports car. And while it may not be quite ready to put it into production, it has given us an idea of what to expect with the Alpine Celebration revealed today at Le Mans.

Billed as a show car, the Alpine Celebration previews the marque's return to the sports car market in the near future. It's a two-seat, mid-engined coupe that draws its stylistic and spiritual inspiration from road-going and competition models from the marque's illustrious past – particularly the legendary Alpine A110. Think of it as a slightly retro and very French take on the form embodied by the likes of the Porsche Cayman, Lotus Elise, and Alfa Romeo 4C.

Alpine Celebration Concept 

Unfortunately, while the press kit below speaks plenty of Alpine's past, the concept's design, and the significance of the racing venue where it's been unveiled, it gives us very little to go on in the way of technical details. It must have some kind of running gear underneath its orange-accented blue bodywork, since it's running a demonstration lap at the Circuit de la Sarthe this weekend, but the French automaker isn't telling us just what that engine might be. We'd be surprised if it had more than four or six cylinders, though, potentially boosted by a turbocharger or two and driving the rear wheels.

Alpine Celebration Concept 

Remember that this isn't the first new Alpine design we've seen since Renault committed to reviving the marque. There was the rather striking A110-50 concept unveiled three years ago, the heart-pumping Vision Gran Turismo design from earlier this year, and the LMP2 prototype that's competing once again at Le Mans this weekend. This latest concept, however, adopts a friendlier, ostensibly more production-ready form – and one we're looking forward to seeing make its way at long last into production, even if it isn't likely to ever reach US showrooms.