Douvrin PRV Cars

[Dangermouse]

After reading Chris's thread on the Volvo 262 comparo, I can across this from 2006. Perhaps most of your remember it:

http://www.volvobertone.com/17enstory.html

Comparing the PRV in the D, the Volvo and the Renault Alpine

[Chris Burns]

Cool link Dangermouse!

The Renault Alpine is a zippy car. It's a shame that most Americans have never heard of a Renault Alpine. Just the horrible Renaults that were sold through AMC/Jeep dealers back in the 80's

[DMCVegas]

Cool link Dangermouse!

The Renault Alpine is a zippy car. It's a shame that most Americans have never heard of a Renault Alpine. Just the horrible Renaults that were sold through AMC/Jeep dealers back in the 80's

After the horrible Renaults that came over here (some mechanical problems, American attitudes about disposable cars, and metric tires you couldn't get forcing you to buy new wheels for the Fuego), AMC and Renault were working quite hard at trying to restore the public's perception. The idea was to bring over Renault products that were re-badged as Eagles. The Eagle Premier was the first example. Available first as a sedan, coupe and wagon versions were forth coming. I even have early pre-Chrysler, Eagle sales material that actually shows Renault-badged interiors used in the mockup photos.

Another little item was that Eagle wanted to finally have a sports car of their own. The Alpine GTA was going to be rebadged as the Eagle Alpine and sold in the US. Once Chrysler took over after Renault CEO Georges Besse's assassination, Lee Iaccoca scrapped the projects along with many others. AMC's new "Neon" was adopted as Chrysler's K-Car replacement, the Premier was temporarily re-badged as a Dodge Monaco until the Cloud cars replaced them, and the Alpine was dropped in favor of Iaccoca's little darling Mitsubishi Eclipse being re-badged as the Eagle Talon. Many years ago there was someone who uploaded a scan to the DML of a GTA with a custom front fascia that had an Eagle badge instead of a Renault diamond.

Besse's plan was to save French jobs in Douvrin & Dieppe with the exportation of PRVs & Alpines, as well as transaxles (and whatever city those are made in), and AMC signed a contract to purchase about 300,000 PRVs if I remember correctly, which was also a concession for Chrysler to obtain AMC. But Iaccoca welched on the deal anyways. We came VERY close to getting the Renault Alpine stateside, along with TONS of PRVs and UN-369 transaxles (like the DMC-12 uses).

[DCUK Martin]

...and then the pop-up headlights and a bunch of other syling cues which had been destined for the american market GTA ended up on the GTA replacement, the A610.

The Alpine A310, GTA and A610 all used 369 or UN1's attached to increasingly powerful PRVs.

[Chris Burns]

I'd like to see a Renualt Alpine in person. They look awesome!!

[DMCVegas]

And since it's an Alpine thread, and I dislike Jeremy Clarkson...

[DCUK Martin]

That was actually a concourse-winning A610 too, one of around only 40 right-hand drive examples. On the up side, the engine and transmisison has been secured by a DeLorean owner and forum member

Clarkson actually loves the A610 and rated it as his car of the year in 92 (I think).

[DCUK Martin]

This is a 2.5 turbo GTA showing what a rear engined PRV-powered car can do. The transmission is standard and the DeLorean's is just as strong (though it has the standard Renault turbo clutch).