The Alpine A106 is a sports car that was the first of a line of light-weight glass-fibre bodied, rear-engined two-door coupés produced for a young competition-oriented Dieppe based Renault dealer called Jean Rédélé.
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.
[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.
In 1956 Jean Claude Galtier and Maurice Michy achieved a podium place and class victory for the A106 in the Mille Miglia race.
[2] In 1957 Chappe et Gessalin relocated production facilities for the fibre-glass bodied cars from Saint-Maur to a new more spacious site (which a few years later became their headquarters) at Brie-Comte-Robert.