In the collective subconscious
blue is the color most associated with the sports brandAlpine as a result of its use in circuit, rally and street cars for decades. However, as Design Director Antony Villain explains, there is no single Alpine Blue.
All car fan
saves in his memory the image of a blue Alpine berlinetta skidding on a rally stage. Indeed, the rallying prowess of the A110 in the 1960s and 1970s greatly shaped the minds of several generations and have helped to create an instinctive association between the brand and this color.
However, the first Alpines weren’t exactly blue.
When Jean Rédélé introduced the CEO of Renault, Pierre Dreyfus, his first cars on the Billancourt factory esplanade in the summer of 1955, used a very varied color palette: a blue car, a white car and a red car.
Later,
when Alpine started its racing career, the A106 debuted in two colors very different from the traditional metallic blue: it was dressed in a white and a very light blue. Similarly, Alpine A106 street cars were usually ordered in red, white or yellow, with blue taking a back seat.
Only with the berlinetta A110 does metallic blue make its appearance, which will soon become an iconic color. Apparently the color was first used following a request from a customer who wanted to see his A110 painted in a blue called Panama.
Jacques cheinisseAt that time an Alpine salesman and an amateur driver in his spare time would have seen this blue and would also order it for the A110 that he ordered in early 1963 and entered a rally. A viral choice that was soon applied to all the berlinettas of the official teams, delighted that the national colors shone in competition as they already did in the Grand Prix until 1967 (blue for France, red for Italy, green for Great Britain, white and then silver for Germany, etc.). A legendary color association had been born.
This metallic blue from Alpine, long referenced with
the code RE 331, it was not the only blue that Alpine offered to its customers at that time. Among many other shades, the catalog featured metallic blues “Acier”, “Pacifique”, “Azur” and “Estoril”. In the words of Antony Villain, “Indeed, there has never been a single Alpine blue. Also, at that time, there were many yellow, red, orange colors … ». It is also worth remembering the beautiful “Normand” green color that was worn by the last A110 produced in 1977.
The sporting exploits of the berlinetta made metallic blue very popular with customers. “So much so that, in the 1980s, many Alpine that were not originally blue were repainted in this color by their owners. Today there are many more blue berlinettas than at that time ”,
affirms Antony Villain. At that time, metallic blue accounted for no more than 30% of orders.
A blue for every trend
In 2012, when Renault decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the berlinetta
with the A110-50 concept car, the color chosen was naturally a metallic blue. “It was perceived as the iconic Alpine blue, but it was a new shade,” says Antony Villain. “When the Alpine brand was revived, one of the first tasks was to decorate the car that would race in the World Endurance Championship. Time was tight and we stuck with this blue, which we have used ever since. ”
This new shade is found today in the A110 street, but also
in the A480 of the Alpine Elf Matmut Endurance Team and in the A521 of the Alpine F1 Team. However, in the latter case a specific version is used, a little clearer, made in collaboration with the engineers of Enstone – the headquarters of the team. The goal is to make the car stand out better on the track, while also making the sponsors more visible.
The Design Director of
Alpine and his team can unleash creativity: “Our goal as designers is to project this image into the future. It is a great color for us.
Blue is a resource that can be used over and over again. Is not fixed. That is the interesting thing. It is a challenge to find new shades, new treatments, new depths. We have to adapt to the times and to new technologies «. The deployment of the future Alpine range could well bring us some color surprises.
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