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2017 Alpine coupe will be powered by 1.8-litre turbo – report

The new Alpine coupe, possibly badged as the A120, will reportedly be powered by a 1.8-litre turbocharged engine.


Sources have told Autocar that the new coupe will be powered by a stroked version of the 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine used in the Clio RS.

For the Alpine, the motor's capacity will be increased to 1.8 litres. With the assistance of a turbocharger the 1.8-litre engine will develop around 185kW of power in the base model. A possible high-performance model will likely use the same engine, but will be tuned to deliver about 225kW.

Speaking to the British magazine, Michael van der Sande, head of Alpine, succinctly summed up the brand's object as "building cars that will be fun from reasonable speeds upwards and which don’t compromise on interior quality to achieve that".

At present, the brand has "more ideas than funds". So a faster variant and a "beautiful convertible" are possibilities, but not yet certainties.

Beyond that there's talk of an entire family of Alpine cars, including a crossover vehicle. Sande says, though, that "whatever we do in the future must always be underpinned by an authentic sports car" and that the brand "must get established before we start expanding the range".

The revived sports car maker's first focus is Europe, and Alpine will have a network of between 60 and 80 dealers throughout the Continent at launch.

Importantly for Australia, the Alpine coupe will also be produced in right-hand drive for the UK. Although there aren't any official plans to launch the brand here, Justin Hocevar, Renault Australia's managing director, told CarAdvice in May, "It’s well and truly on our radar".

Hocevar noted that Australians love their sporty Renaults, with our market accounting for 10 percent of all Clio RS production and ranking second globally for the Megane RS.

The new Alpine coupe will be launched later this year, and will go on sale across Europe from early in 2017. The Alpine Vision unveiled earlier this year is said to be 80 percent representative of the new car.

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