A legend will come to life again. The Alpine A110 will return to the third round of the Nürburgring VLN endurance championship. The French manufacturer organises this year the “Alpine Elf Europa Cup”, a one-make cup which took place for the last time from 1985 until 1988. The basis at that time was the third Alpine generation. The “Alpine Elf Europa Cup” 2018, which has been approved by the FIA as “FIA international series”, will comprise six events with twelve races to take place on prestigious European race tracks in France, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium and Spain. The season was launched beginning of June at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet. The winners of the opening race were Pierre Sancinéna and Vincent Beloise. The current overall leader is Nicolas Milan, having scored two second places.
The second race weekend of the series is now scheduled to take place at the Nürburgring Grand Prix Circuit during the 60thADAC ACAS H&R Cup. The race cars will be completely new customer vehicles, based on the series-production Alpine which will be delivered to the first purchasers from August. It is not only the visual design of the new Alpine A110 which reminds very much of the genuine icon in the company’s history. The Alpine A110 Cup version is available at a price of 100,000 euros plus VAT. 20 cars have been prepared for the first season. The A110 Cup version was developed by the team of Signatech who has also already assembled for Alpine the race cars competing in class LMP2 of the WEC World Endurance Championship. The Cup version of the Alpine A110 is fitted with a 1.8 litres turbo engine with four cylinders and 270 HP and it has a vehicle weight of 1,050 kilograms. Gear shifting is accomplished through a sequential six-speed gearbox with paddle shift on the steering wheel. The rear axle has been upgraded with a limited slip differential. The stiffer chassis, the lowering of the ride height by 40mm and the fitting of a rollcage are specifically designed for racing.
One-make cups have a long tradition with Renault. Since more than two decades already, there are top-class championships with the Renault Clio in several countries. “Germany has an amazing motorsport culture. It was not too difficult for us to put in place the Alpine Europa Cup. The Nürburgring is a legendary circuit with a perfect organisation and an awesome atmosphere. I am convinced that the teams are as excited as we are to see the performance of the A110 Cup vehicles there”, says Regis Fricotte, Renault sales and motorsport manager, ahead of the start at the worldwide biggest grassroots racing series.
During the VLN weekend, the Alpine Elf Europa Cup will have two free practice session of 30 minutes each (08h30 and 12h00) and the first timed practice (14h00 to 14h30) as well as race 1 (18h30 to 19h00). The starting grid for the second race on the Saturday (17h00 to 17h30) will be based on the results in the practice between 10h30 and 11h00.
