Stillborn racer

In 1968, appeared in a quiet street of Dieppe (France), a very pretty single seater, in front of the Renault dealership owned by Jean Rédélé. He was the founder of the Alpine make, with the very popular Berlinette and also Formula 3 race cars which dominated their category in the 60’s and sports prototypes competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, regularly winning the ‘Indice of Performance’ classification.

This Formula 1 called A350, encouraged by Elf, who enjoyed promoting it’s products through motor racing, was tested by test driver Mauro Bianchi on the Michelin track (partnering the project with radial tyres) at Ladoux, and later at Zolder on a rainy day. But the pretty blue car was not performing well, too heavy and with a V8 3 litres Gordini engine lacking horsepower.

The car was entered in the French Grand Prix at Rouen for Mauro Bianchi (his brother Lucien driving a Cooper at the time in F1), but the Alpine A350 was withdrawn at the last minute by a veto expressed by Renault who owned the rights for the Gordini engine, the company coming out of a torrid period, the May 1968 protests.

The French fans will then have to wait 10 years before seeing an Alpine on track, the A500, prototype of the future turbo F1 Renault cars. But it will be Alpine’s swansong, the mother company Renault preferring to promote their own brand for their Grand Prix debut.