Return to Alpine history This is my own car, like all swing axle Alpines, you can see the heavy negative camber on the back wheels which is one of the main secrets of the Berlinette's excellent roadholding despite swing axles and narrow tyres. The red fibreglass bumpers were de rigeur on works cars of the 1970 period so of course, although mine is not an ex works car, I just had to put them on! (They are genuine Alpine catalogue parts, only 2 layers of fibre cloth and bend in the breeze a bit... The Monte Carlo winner, Ove Anderson commented that you could see through the fibreglass doors and roof of works Alpines of the time! ) The car is in genuine Alpine metallic blue, as all the works cars were. Back in the 70s, this was quite an unusual colour and their spectacular appearance, plus their performance and very small size, created enormous interest wherever they appeared. This was the days when rally cars tended to be production saloons and cars like the Stratos had not appeared. In fact, Lancia created the Stratos with its Ferrari engine to try to beat the Alpines, when it became apparent that the Fulvia wasn't going to!