What if you mix a Porsche 911 R and an Alpine A110?

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Back in the 1970s it was really hard to import a racing or sports car into Spain. This situation caused a number of "self made" racing specials in different street models, as we showed not long ago in our "Duck prototype" puzzle. The above photo shows one of the most original and succesful of all these creations: The Alpinche, result of mixing an Alpine and a Porsche. The creator was a pilot called Estanislao Reverter, who at the beginning of the 70s was lucky enough to keep up a very good stockof foreign sports cars.

One of the "crown jewels" in his collection was a brand new Porsche 911 R , a very special machine with fiberglass body and a powerful 2.4 litre engine, the same as used in the Carrera 6 model. In one of the first races with the 911 R, the car suffered a serious accident, and the car was nearly compleetly destroyed. Only the mechanics were considered reusable, so Reverter aquired a new Renault Alpine A110 and installed the Porsche power unit on it. Also the chassis and suspension were modified resulting in the strange "monster" of the photos.

The car was very hard to handle, nevertheless Reverter managed to win many races, even some of the official european championship. In 1974 the "Alpinche" unfortunately was involved in a very serious accident while racing in a southern Spanish rallye, and finally it was abandoned. The remains of this very special cars have recently appeared in very bad condition and without the Porsche engine (Photo 2), but the Estanislao Reverter foundation has already started the difficult talk of restore it to its former glory.  Hopefully we will show you photos of the finished project not too long from now.

text Francisco Carrión, photos archive Francisco Carrión      

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