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Caterham Leaves Renault Alpine Project, Will Develop Its Own Sportscar

A press statement issued by the French carmaker early today states that Renault and Caterham have officially split ways on their jointly developed sportscar project. Citing a "mutual agreement", Renault has bough their British partners out of the 50% stake in Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham, a joint venture started in 2012.
Caterham Leaves Renault Alpine Project, Will Develop Its Own Sportscar 1 photo
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The Alpine revival is still on schedule to be launched in 2016, while Caterham is going ahead with development of its own sportscar, which could arrive even earlier.

The reality of this split might not have been as "mutual" as officials would lead us to believe. It's been rumored that talks between the parties have long broken down. The reason? Caterham is a much smaller company for which the sportscar project was a major investment. They wanted to put their sportscar on sale as soon as possible. Renault, on the other hand, has the Alpine brand's reputation to consider. Due to a redesign, the project has been delayed by a year.

In another statement made today, Alpine project manager Bernard Ollivier stated that "90% of design specifications [are] complete and an interior design [will] be finalized before the summer."

There have been many rumors about the different powertrains that will go into the Alpine and Caterham sportscars. We can't say with absolute certainty what Renault will use, but either the 1.6 TCe from the Clio RS or 2-liter TCe from the next-gen Megane RS seem like a good fit.

It's been suggested that a KERS system with F1-inspired technology will be implemented. However, Ollivier says "style, enjoyment and sporting spirit" are going to be the key attributes of this 21st century berlinette. That isn't exactly how you describe a race car for the road. Renault is likely ignoring performance benchmarks like the Porsche Cayman or Lotus Exige and is instead focusing on refinement.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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