One to Buy: 1 of 5 ex-works 1975 Renault-Alpine A442
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Having campaigned the two-litre V6-powered A440 and A441 with much success during the 1973 and ‘74 seasons, Renault’s Alpine subsidiary created a 2.2-litre turbocharged A442 for 1975 when the French outfit would make the step up to the World Sportscar Championship.
That season, the A442’s best results were a brace of thirds (at the Monza 1000km and Watkins Glen 6 Hours) while a now turbocharged A441 took victory at the Mugello 1000km. However, the season was dominated by Alfa Romeo’s Tipo 33/TT/12 which won seven of the nine races.
The following campaign saw Porsche’s 936 hit the track and clean up in a similar fashion to Alfa Romeo the year prior. Renault-Alpine’s best results were a brace of second place finishes at the Monza 4 Hours and Dijon 500km.
For 1977 and ‘78, Renault-Alpine elected to focus its efforts on just one event: the Le Mans 24 Hours. Although all four cars failed to finish the ‘77 contest, the A442 came good in 1978 when Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud took a famous win for the French outfit.
With just two A440s, four A441s, five A442s and a solitary A443 having been constructed (the latter of which also ran at Le Mans in 1978), these cars are extremely hard to find on the open market.
However, at Artcurial’s Renault Icons sale on December 7th, the very first A442 completed will be going under the hammer.
Chassis 442-0 was the car in which Gerard Larrousse and Jean-Pierre Jabouille scored Renault-Alpine’s joint best finish of the 1975 season: third overall at the Monza 1000km. That year, the same driver pairing also used it to collect fourth overall at the Nurburgring 1000km.
Having contested five races in 1975, chassis 442-0 attended just two in 1976. At the Nurburgring 300km it retired while at the Imola 500km it set a qualifying time quick enough to bag pole position but then served as the T-car for the rest of the event.
1977 saw 442-0 appear on only one occasion: at the Le Mans 24 Hours where it retired during the first hour with minor fire damage. The car then served as a reserve entry for the ‘78 Le Mans which Renault-Alpine won thanks to Pironi and Jaussaud.
Chassis 442-0 returned to Renault after the 1978 Le Mans where it has resided ever since. Today the car is presented very close to the configuration in which it was used to contest a series of high speed tests at the Columbus speed ring in the USA during November 1977.
Both the V6 turbo engine and suspension are said to be incomplete and although the car has been restored cosmetically at some point, it is being sold as a tantalising restoration project in remarkably original condition.
