The most unusual Renault produced at the beginning of the ’90s was the A610.
It was a true sports car with a mid-engine and rear-wheel-drive. It was the successor of the 1984 Alpine GTA.

The second generation of the Renault Alpine was named A610. It was built for the track and engineered by the Renault-Sport department in Dieppe. It was not designed or assembled by the mass-market department.

The Alpine A610 was the first Renault to feature pop-up headlights. Its flat hood and raked A-pillars evoked a super-sport vehicle, even though it couldn’t match the performances of a Ferrari. But it was strong enough to make a Porsche driver uncomfortable. The curved roofline and the abrupt slope of the back were part of the design heritage. The plastic bodywork was needed to reduce the car’s weight.

Inside, there were two bucket-seats in the front and another pair in the back. The dashboard featured a square design for the center stack and rounded on top for the instrument cluster. With a rev-counter on the right and the speedometer on the left, it looked different than those found in other mass-produced vehicles.

Despite having two cramped seats in the back, the engineers managed to install a turbocharged V6 engine behind them, in a mid-rear position. It was mated to a 5-speed gearbox. Its performances were similar to other sports cars from the era. The A610 was produced until 1995 and it didn’t have a successor until 2017 when the Alpine A110 was launched.