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Don Henshaw

Hello folks. Would like to contact owner with similar 4cyl car. Regards Don. donaldhenshaw@xtra.co.nz

 

Gavin Chapman

 

Paul Cowley (Venturi)

Hi, I recently joined the forum and posted a request concerning Venturi's. I have had a reply from Steve Dell asking me to post some pictures of my car. I have attached pictures of my Venturi 260 APC. 1991 model. Former media vehicle for the importers of the time, and has therefore appeared in several magazines of the period, and recently it has been featured in classic car magazines usually in group tests with the A610, and Lotus Esprit. But its biggest claim to fame is that it was driven by Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear, again in a group test with an A610. Also in one of the pictures is my Porsche 964 Carrera 2. 1991, LHD. Previous owner included a German fighter pilot. Regards Paul Cowley.

 

James & Helen Powell

Hope you like our GTA, it’s taken many years to restore, hoping to enjoy it a bit more this year now it’s finished!

Here are some pics of the restoration, just a small selection of the hundreds we’ve taken

 

George Lackford (New photos added July 2006)

Here are some pictures of my yellow A610 J459 JTP during its rebuild. I removed the rear sub-frame complete, stripped every last nut, bolt and washer, powdered coated all relevant parts, replaced all the suspension bushes, rebuilt the gearbox and totally rebuilt the engine. The photos show the engine and sub-frame assembly before I started and as you can see the finished result when it was all reassembled. This took approx 50-60 hours.

At the moment I am doing the same with my blue A610 which I have also fitted with an electric sun roof. Following a small accident it also has to be re-sprayed. This will be on the road in approx 8 or 9 months. I have also included some photos of my GTA engine rebuild that I completed before.

Thought I would give you a progress report and send you a few pictures, as you can see by the pictures the sub frame was stripped by company called Pain Strippers in Wollaston and the powder coating was done by Onile coatings in Wellingbourough. It's now almost back together, just waiting on some gaskets. Then I will finish the engine. The gear box has been rebuilt by Top Gear in Mountsoral in Leicester and the clutch was rebuilt by Precision Clutches and they have another branch in Croydon (an excellent company to deal with). I will have the engine finished in about 2 weeks then will start putting it all back together.

Have been very busy trying to get the A610 finished but getting there now and it should be on the road in the next 2 or 3 weeks. As you can see from the pictures it's not blue!! Any way hope you like the pics.

Well at last just about finished, fitted new wheels today just got to sort out a couple of bits on the body but a last it's on the road! Here are a couple more pictures.

George

(If you need any help regarding your A610 or a rebuild I'm sure George would be pleased to offer you some advice georgeandjulie3@msn.com)

 

Dave Bishop

As a newcomer to the Forum (and a dreaded multiple A310 owner!!) I asked I if could add pics, I was advised to email them to you for inclusion.

I have attached three pics, one for each of my A310's, the first is my 1982 V6 which has just had an engine & gearbox rebuild plus new paint (a Kangoo colour called Alabama Green); second is my blue ex-DeLorean development A310 from 1979 (pictured at a UK sprint); thirdly is my red 1977 BV4 Group 5 A310 which is an ex-competition car, factory built but using Fleischmann bodywork. Converted back to a road car some years ago, the car has a number of competition mods still apparent and is superb to drive, having had a chassis restoration 12 years ago and virtually no miles since.

I hope you can add them even though they are not GTA's or A610's. But we're all 'keeping the faith', eh?

Regards

Dave Bishop (a310man)

 

Ben Shephard

A few photo’s of my 1986 GTA V6 turbo...

I bought it because my Dad had an ‘89 GTA’ from new when I was a teenager and he has always raved about what a great car it was, so I thought I’d take his advice and make the plunge. No regrets so far!

I have done loads of work on it, as it was a real state when I got just over a year ago. It was originally metallic white, but the paint was totally shot. So I decided to paint it a Volvo colour – Dark Olive Metallic. I also went for the Azev ‘M’ wheels, 10/18’s at the rear and 17’s at the front (after a 5 and a half month wait for them!!!!). The front wheel arches had to be altered to accommodate the lock of the new wheels, but it wasn’t as much of a job as I thought it would be. I put Koni adjustables all round, had the rear chassis galvanised and replaced the clutch, along with a few other bits in the engine bay. I also recently put new front seats and steering wheel in it.

I still have quite a few little bits to do and would like to play around with the engine, but it is so much fun to drive, I’d sooner be out on the road than in the garage.

 

Richard Miller

Here are a few photos of the 1988 GTA V6 Turbo that I owned for 7 years before I moved to Belgium earlier this year. It was my only car for the first few years of ownership and proved great fun, especially the frequent blank looks from people who had no clue what it was (especially as I re-badged it with the proper Alpine badge instead of the Renault "diamond").

Due to a combination of a new job which meant an M25 commute & some reliability concerns it became my second car for last 4 years which meant it got to live in the garage and I used it only at weekends & on sunny days. I steadily replaced much of the car which made it reliable once again and enjoyed using it "properly" for events such as Le Mans & others closer to home.

It was such a great car to look at and to drive (especially with the new alloy wheels that I put on it). I have to admit that I rarely had the stereo on and often opened the drivers window just a fraction so that I could better hear the turbo whistling & chirping from behind my right shoulder .... truly addictive.

Life without it has left a hole which I hope to fill with another Alpine sometime in the future .... maybe a Le Mans or an A610.

At least I know it went to a good home as the look on the face of the guy who bought it was much the same as mine when I first saw it .... small boy in a sweet shop would be a good summary (happy motoring Graham ! ).

Best Regards,

Rich Miller
 

David Waghorn (Hampshire)

Fantastic super car!

 

Ben Griffiths (Worcester)

 

Rupert Lloyd (New Photos Added)

Attached are a few latest pics of the car, progress is still slow I'm afraid.

A few pics of my slowly ongoing Le Mans body conversion. Sorry about the quality!

I got a damaged front end, front bumper, a rear bumper and rims second hand... all very lucky really, although all the panels needed varying degrees of repair. They are all made from fibreglass and make the standard GTA panels look very high tech as they appear to be a very flexible plastic composite material. This was only marginally cheaper than Politecnic however. I bought rear wings and sill extensions new.

The bodywork from the car has been removed and we have started to offer up the new panels.  We will have to fabricate a few mounting points I suspect, also there is no undertray on the front bumper unlike the GTA. The rear wing extensions require the old wings to be cut away, tho' we are trying to retain as much as possible of the old wing so that strength is not compromised... there is only a minor weight issue.  The genuine Le Mans cars had most of the rear wing removed and inner wing extensions installed to fill the gap.

I'm quite glad I'm not doing this myself (due mainly to the fact I have no garage and also have two small kids which take a lot of my free time) as I think I would have lost some heart seeing it in this stripped state... however things can only get better!

I will post more pics in due course.

 

Justin Black

Here are a few pics of my 1987 GTA Turbo. I bought it in 2001 from a Renault dealer in Rochdale who'd owned it for about 13 years and had it sat in his showroom. It's the road test car used in the May 1987 issue of Performance Car magazine. They recorded a 0-60mph time of 6.1secs and a top speed of 153mph. I use it everyday (at least when it's not broken!) including travelling to and from work.

 

Lee Crowston (aka Clee)

Very shiny ' 88  turbo after a wash and Mer job. Azev 17" rear & 16" front with Koni's. If and when funds are available, I would like to upgrade the front to Le Mans style. Always liked the rear as it is, so should not be too big a job.

 

Jonathan Davison

Thought I'd contribute by putting a picture up of my GTA on the site before it was smacked up the arse! It had the paintwork sorted out since the Ace Cafe meet and was looking quite mint. It's a totally standard ATMO other than being lowered 20mm.

Bring on the turbo kind Mr Insurance man!

Cheers, Mr Jon

 

Martin Gutkowski (De Lorean)

What do you get if you cross an Alpine with an Esprit? Add a few slabs of stainless steel, funky doors and take away half the performance! It's Fibreglass, Backbone chassis a la Esprit, but rear mounted PRV with a 369 gearbox, like the GTA. They had to go for the US emission certified Volvo version of the engine, but there's nothing stopping us dropping a nice turbo lump like you guys have in there..... which is precisely what I'm doing!

Martin (DMUK www.delorean.co.uk)

 

Alex Clark

Hi, I'm Alex Clark, the proprietor of Carlton Garage. I am the proud owner of a 1981 Renault 5 Turbo 1, and am regularly campaigning in the South West of England Hill Climb Championships. Places like Wiscombe Park, Finlake, Oddicombe and also sprints at Dunkeswell. All my accumulated points are awarded in duplicate to Woolbridge Motor Club of which I am a member. Having raced this car for two years, being placed 16 and 14 overall in the Championship tables, the car is making progress.... watch this space!! Pictured is the 5 Turbo in action at Dunkeswell. I also own a Clio V6.... one of only twenty three ever produced in red along with a blue A610 (my third to date). However I could be tempted to sell both if the right offer was made!

 

Philip Venerio (aka Phildini) (New Photos Added)

Here are some pictures of my Alpine. It's a Turbo model with one owner from new, she has done 106k miles and still goes like a bomb! I have had and still have many cars but the Alpine is by far my favourite one.

Shiny new Azev M's!

 

Chris Mather

Here are a few pics of my GTA & my mate's Esprit Turbo enjoying a well deserved rest during a hard days driving, which resulted in my slave cylinder expiring on me in the middle of nowhere!! I've had her for about 4 months and have been sorting out a few quirks on the cosmetic side before tackling the some engine mods. I was pleasantly surprised at how well matched these two cars are.

 

Barry Jayes (New Photos Added)

Please find attached some photos of my 1989 GTA Turbo

 

Jon Barltrop

I was passed your website details from Tony Law and thought you might like to see my GTA.

 

Simon Taylor

My silver bullet.

Well, I've always wanted a Ferrari, and in the past had only managed a Fiat X/19 (Great fun, good mechanically & reasonable performance for a 1500). Ferrari's still command 20K for a 25 - 20 year old car, the sort of age where tin rot is rife, so cars are either expensive or about to rust-apart. Someone once told me that these Alpines were Ferrari performance for half price when new. Nowadays, I would say they are 90% of the performance and a quarter of the price!

Don't be put off by the heavy engine in the back, after all the 911 is the same but a flat 6 instead of a V6. Don't be put off by the glassfibre, it's aircraft technology all bonded together, and TVR, Lotus, some Cobras & Ferraris and most kit cars are all glassfibre.

So, here we have a proven configuration, proven technologies and reliable Renault engines. Do performance cars get driven at 100% all the time, I think not. So having 90% of the super-car performance available on tap is just as good. 200BHP is plenty for an 18 year old car. 60 MPH in well under 7s. Top speed of 155 MPH and still 25-30ish to the gallon. OK, so it is badged as a Renault.  But Renault and Alpine together do have a very credible racing pedigree. Alpines were very successful in rallying and won the Monte Carlo in the 70's, they even did Le Mans among other things. Renault pioneered the turbo era of Formula 1.  I'm told that Renault even used the Alpine technicians to do it for them. So here we have an Alpine with a Renault Turbo engine,  MUST BE GOOD unless you are a badge snob.

So, I've been looking for a red one (an obvious Ferrari colour) and there are plenty of tired examples out there. After some serious hunting and advice from Club Alpine Renault members I found this one. A very original example, registered on 1st August 1986.
It only has 47,000 on the clock, the stereo is original, all the switches and knobs work, it has a full service history and all the old MOTs to verify the mileage. Good wheels, clean engine bay, tidy interior, in fact the silver car with black interior feels a little De Lorean like. The last owner looked after it very well for the past 10 years.

Well what a car to drive, really pulls hard, firm but grippy ride and a pleasure to drive. If you are looking for a high performance car with some style and pedigree, an Alpine GTA is for you!