Before this weekend Le Mans 24 Hour Endurance Racewill see a Nascar Cup Cars participate for the first time, French carmaker Alpine has stepped into the limelight to reveal its new endurance racing concept. Called A424_β, the new driver will enter the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2024 and tease the future of car design by Alpine.
Debuting at Le Mans this morning, the A424_β will see the French outfit Alpine enter the new endurance racing class Hypercar next year, including a start at the famous French race in 2024. sports car manufacturer will join the Hypercar class after debuting in Formula 1 in 2021 and its expanded esports program.
Philippe Sinault, Alpine Elf Endurance team principal, said: “In 2013, we persuaded Alpine to return to racing and we knew that such a brand belonged only to the top class.
“Our ten-year adventure has resulted in European and world titles in several areas. More than ever, we are truly proud and delighted to represent Alpine at the pinnacle of Endurance racing and other collaborations with the A110 Cup, A110 GT4, A110 Rally and soon A110 Pikes Peak. It has created a positive momentum around our projects and it offers great prospects for the future.”
The interesting thing about the Hypercar (or LMDh) class that Alpine will compete in is that each entry in this category must be built on one of four accepted chassis designs. Teams can then match them with an engine of their choiceas well as the popular 50 kW hybrid system.
In the case of the Alpine, this is like a turbocharged V6 with a displacement of 3,400 cc. In the racing version, the engine will produce 674 horsepower, supported by standard Bosch hybrid system add 50 kW power.
To further differentiate the cars on the track, The bodywork of each item may be different wildly, and Alpine said in its case this would “apply the styling cues of the brand’s standard production vehicles.” This means that the A424_β “reveals the styling cues of future production models,” according to Alpine.
“Our vision is to have a pure body, like a supercar on the road. “We tried to be efficient, so we simplified, smoothed and refined the surfaces as much as possible to avoid adding volume and heterogeneous factors”.
“That is especially true in the back. That’s the end of the aerodynamic line, where drag has to be as fluid as possible. We kept it as streamlined as possible to get away with the blocky look typical of Le Mans prototypes.”
The resulting car looks great. For me, standout details include the excellent ‘A’-shaped taillights, as well as that massive wing/fin combination at the back of the car. Whether details like this will one day appear on Alpine road cars, we’ll have to wait and see. Either way, if the A424_β is a sign of things to come at Alpine, then I’m excited to see the future of the French outfit unfold.
But what are the automaker’s next steps before getting this thing on track? Well, as you can see from the photos, it’s just a concept at this stage. So the first step will be to conduct a test drive of the car – something Alpine hopes will happen by the end of July.
Next, it will bring continued to run tests at circuits including Paul Ricard in France and Circuito de Jerez in Spain. The car’s homologation is expected to take place in December, before it enters the Qatar 6-hour race for the first time in March 2024.
