Description
Alpine: The Quest of Absolute Agility is a volume that brings together automotive history, brand design, photography, and literature. It documents the journey of the French sports car brand Alpine, from its racing legend to its contemporary revival, with the birth of the new-generation A110 at its center. Through this lens, the book reinterprets the brand’s long-standing pursuit of lightness, handling, and driving pleasure.
Alpine was founded in 1955 by French racing driver Jean Rédélé. In its early years, the brand developed lightweight, compact, and highly responsive sports cars based on Renault models, gradually building its reputation in European rally racing. The original A110, launched in 1962, became Alpine’s most iconic model thanks to its low, streamlined body and exceptional handling, establishing the brand’s important position in French automotive history and racing culture.
This book looks back on Alpine’s founding background, classic models, and racing achievements, while also offering an in-depth view of how the brand, after years of silence, reassembled its design and engineering teams and launched the new-generation A110 in 2017. Faced with this revival project, the team did not simply reproduce the appearance of the classic model. Instead, they reexamined the proportions, stance, and driving characteristics of the original A110, translating its core spirit of lightweight construction, low center of gravity, and agile handling into a sports car suited to contemporary needs.
Throughout the book, historical photographs, design sketches, development records, automotive photography, and artistic works are interwoven to present how Alpine established a complete and coherent contemporary identity—from form, engineering, and brand identity to exhibition spaces. It is concerned not only with the car itself, but also with how a classic brand, in beginning anew, identifies the values truly worth preserving within its own history and continues its spirit through new technology and visual language.
The book also includes an independent short story by French novelist Monica Sabolo. Through roads, night, memory, and sensory experience, it offers a reading perspective different from engineering and historical documentation. In the text, the automobile is no longer merely a mechanical product, but also a medium carrying emotion, time, and personal experience.
The book’s distinctive binding also echoes Alpine’s design philosophy. Its exposed spine, blue stitching, and die-cut cover deliberately reduce the heavy enclosure of a traditional hardcover, directly revealing the paper, structure, and materials. This concise and precise form turns the book itself into an extension of Alpine’s philosophy of lightness.
Alpine: The Quest of Absolute Agility is not an automotive encyclopedia that lists the specifications of every model. Rather, it is a complete record for understanding the spirit of the Alpine brand and the revival of the A110 from historical, design, and cultural perspectives. For readers interested in automotive design, brand culture, photography, and special bookbinding, this volume offers a reading experience with both depth and collectible value.
Details
Author: Gilles Uzan
Publisher: Flammarion
Publication Year: 2018
Size: 31 × 24 cm
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 280 pages
