Renault Alpine GTA/A610
The Renault Alpine GTA and the succeeding A610 is a sports coupe automobile produced by the Renault-owned French manufacturer Alpine between late 1984 and 1995. It replaced the slow-selling Alpine A310, with which it shared many features including the layout and engine.[1] The GTA was replaced by the A610 in 1991.
It was the first car launched by Alpine under Renault ownership (though Alpine had been affiliated with Renault for many years, with its earlier models using many Renault parts). Longer, wider, and taller, it effectively updated the design of its predecessor, the Alpine A310, updating that car's silhouette with modern design features like body-integrated bumpers and a triangular C-pillar with large rear windshield. Like its predecessor, it used the V6 PRV engine in a rear-engined layout, with extensive use of Polyester plastics and fibreglass for the body panels making it lighter and quicker than rivals such as the Porsche 944. Passenger room increased, making the rear seat more of a useful proposition, while equipment was much more complete and now included items such as power locks.[2] It was one of the most aerodynamic cars of its time, the naturally aspirated version achieved a record 0.28 drag coefficient in its class.[2] Due to its bigger tires and need for more cooling intakes, the Turbo's drag coefficient was a bit higher: 0.30 . The GTA name, used to denote the entire range of this generation, stands for "Grand Tourisme Alpine" but in most markets the car was marketed as the Renault Alpine V6 GT or as the Renault Alpine V6 Turbo.[3] In Great Britain it was sold simply as the Renault GTA,[4] as Sunbeam (and then Chrysler/Talbot) had been using the "Alpine" badge since the 1950s.
Rather than being moulded in a single piece as for the preceding A310, the new Alpine's body was moulded in a large number of small separate panels.[3] This required a major overhaul of the Alpine plant, leaving only the sandblasting machinery intact. The car was also considerably more efficient to manufacture, with the time necessary to build a finished car dropping from 130 to 77 hours - which was still a long time, but acceptable for a small-volume specialty car.[5] The PRV engine in the naturally aspirated model was identical to the version used in the Renault 25, a 2849 cc unit producing 160 PS (118 kW; 158 hp). The small power gain compensated for the weight increase, up by 92 kg (203 lb). Also available was the more powerful turbochargedmodel, which used a smaller (2.5-liter) displacement.
The central backbone chassis (with outriggers for side impact protection) was built by Heuliez and then transferred to Dieppe - aside from the body, most of the car was subcontracted to various suppliers.[5] The drivetrain was mounted on a separate subframe, meaning it can be removed in as little as two hours.[6] It was also moved 40 mm (1.6 in) forward (making the rear overhang shorter while nearly all other dimensions increased) compared to the A310, improving somewhat on that car's tailwards weight distribution.[1] The transmission was the same Renault 30-based unit that the A310 had used, with some minor changes and somewhat longer fourth and fifth gears. Those gears were taller yet for the GT Turbo model.[2] At the time of introduction, daily production number amounted to ten cars.[7] This soon dropped considerably, as the somewhat less than prestigious Renault had a hard time in the sports car marketplace. The average production for the six full years of production was just above 1000 per annum, or just above three per day - almost identical to the A310 V6's annual production.
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