Alpine A106

The car was inspired by the "Marquis" a Renault 4CV based coupé, a design acquired for production under licence in the United States but which had never entered production. More direct inspiration came from the "Allemano", another Renault 4CV based coupé prototype, and modified by Chappe et Gessalin, the firm that would assemble the early "glass fibre"^[3] bodied A106s for Alpine.

Under the skin, the A106 closely resembled the 4CV. The more sporting 43 hp (32 kW) "A106 Mille Miles" would derive from a competition version of the 4CV model developed by Renault.

The number "106" also came from Renault. 1060, 1062 and 1063 were the reference numbers under which the 4CV had been registered with the French homologation authorities.^[4] The Alpine 107 was a steel-bodied prototype, which never entered production.^[5]

The emphasis at this stage was not on selling cars to the public but on chalking up successes in competition, indicating financial support from Renault for Alpine. Following on from the one-off "Marquis" and "Alemano" prototypes, in the summer of 1955 the first three Alpine A106s, painted respectively red, white and blue, were presented to Renault CEO Pierre Dreyfus in the yard at Renault's large (though by now rather cramped) Billaincourt plant. The cars had been assembled by Chappe et Gessalin, in order to meet a special order received from Charles Escoffier, the owner of a large Paris based Renault dealership who also happened to be the father in law of Jean Rédélé.

From 1955 the little A106 started to accumulate a succession of victories, and various performance enhancing options were offered such as "Mille Miles (Mille Miglia) suspension" following A106 participation in the eponymous race. The Mille Miles specifications involve using four shock absorbers at the back, and was the suspension system later used for the Renault 8 Gordini. Also offered was a five-speed manual gear box manufactured under license: a five-speed gear box in a road car of this class was almost unheard of, and since the gearbox option alone came with a price tag sufficient to purchase 35% of a Renault 4CV,^[2] Alpine A106s incorporating the five-speed gear box option remained rare. In 1956 Jean Claude Galtier and Maurice Michy achieved a podium place and class victory for the A106 in the Mille Miglia race.