“ In the 1980s, a considerable number of Alpines that weren’t originally blue were repainted by their owners,” smiles Antony Villain. It was the French berlinette’s success in motorsport (along with the option’s attractive price!) that made metallic blue such a resounding hit with buyers. “ Back in the day, there was also a variety of yellows and reds and oranges.” Interestingly, the colour of the last A110 to roll off the line at Alpine’s Dieppe plant in Normandy, in 1977, was a splendid Metallic Normand Green! “ There was never really a single Alpine Blue,” observes Antony Villain. That said, Metallic Alpine Blue – long referred to as RE331 – was not the only blue that Alpine customers were able to specify, since the catalogue also listed Metallic Azur Blue, Metallic Acier Blue, Metallic Pacifique Blue and Metallic Estoril Blue as possibilities, amongst others. It was through motorsport that the blue colour became associated with the Alpine brand. The decision also tied in neatly with the notion of French racing blue that was employed for many years in motorsport (along with red for Italy, green for Great Britain and white, then silver for Germany, etc.), in keeping with a tradition that survived in grand prix racing until 1967. The option went viral and soon became the default livery of the make’s works berlinettes, thereby sparking a lasting, textbook association of colours.
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The story goes that a customer had specified Panama Blue for his berlinette and that salesman Jacques Cheinisse – a keen rally driver who would later be enrolled as the make’s Sporting Director – was so taken by it that he chose the same finish for the A110 he ordered and took rallying at the beginning of 1963. It was only with the introduction of the A110 that the metallic blue that would go on to become a hallmark of the brand first appeared. Furthermore, the diminutive A106s that Rédélé ran in motorsport were either white or light blue.īlue, but also white and red: the original colours of the Alpine cars are varied A textbook colour association At the time, red, white and yellow were more popular than blue for Alpine’s road cars. Then, when he made his first steps in motorsport behind the wheel of the diminutive A106, his steeds were either white or light blue. When founder Jean Rédélé first presented his early production to the then-Renault CEO Pierre Dreyfus at the Régie’s headquarters near Paris in 1955, he showed up with one blue car, one white and a third in red. Yet blue was by no means the finish of choice in the early days. Here at Alpine, blue is seen as more than just a colour – it is a territory Indeed, the A110’s triumphs in the sport in the 1960s and 1970s made an indelible mark on generations of fans, fuelling a near-Pavlovian link between the trademark livery of those cars and the brand. Many motor enthusiasts have a mental picture of a blue Alpine Berlinette skipping nimbly through a rally stage.