Alpine GTA concept is mental

Alpine-obsessed automotive designer Arseny Kostromin has been at it again dreaming up another hyperbolic interpretation of the French brand’s bantamweight and high-achieving models, this time with a concept dubbed the GTA. But he might have gone too far this time.

Taking the Alpine A110 as its basic layout, the Russian former Genesis, Renault and Volkswagen designer has created a case study that imagines what the latest entrant to the Formula 1 series might add to the road car line-up if it had an open sandbox and unlimited budget.

While it might be immediately recognisable as a relation to the 2019 Alpine A110, there’s not a lot left to technologically tie Kostromin’s wet dream to the production version, with a host of performance-focused features that go beyond anything before it.

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On the outside, chrome-effect trims are applied around the windows and door mirrors as a nod to the original A110, while bonnet vents/DRLs mimic the driving lights of the original rally hero, but that’s very much where the old world ends.

Vast carbon-fibre side fins, rear diffuser, spoiler and butterfly doors couldn’t be further from the subtlety of the A110 road car, along with LED matrix tail and headlights set into fine rhombus-weave pattern mesh for maximum cooling.

A front bumper hints heavily of Porsche 911 GT2 RS with massive air vents filled with huge radiators – confusing, as the GTA is apparently powered by a naturally aspirated and air cooled 4.0-litre Gordini flat-six engine. That’s a lot of oil cooling and AC capacity.

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The engine burps what we suspect will be a very satisfying note out through a titanium Akrapovic exhaust, while inboard suspension, massive carbon-ceramic brakes are also likely pinched from Alpine’s F1 store room.

Measuring 4115mm long and 1100mm tall, the GTA is shorter in both directions than the A110 road car, but is nearly 30mm wider at 1826mm. Those proportions create a seriously capable appearance and an imposing stance, although overall weight is yet to be confirmed and how it compares with the not-exactly-fat 1100kg A110.

On the inside, the GTA’s cabin hides nothing of its construction with unpainted carbon fibre everywhere, a polarising manual gearbox lever and a pair of harnessed racing seats that appear to have less padding than the seat you’ll find in Alonso’s company car.

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The GTA is not the first example of Kostromin’s passion for the Alpine brand. Fresh out of Moscow State Technical University, the graduate revealed his interpretation of an A110 revival – long before the current model was born, and after that he lobbed the Thesis which, ironically was after his thesis.

Is his latest design folly a little too over the top though? And does it detract too far from Alpine’s philosophy of finesse and minimalist engineering to be taken seriously?

Either way, the most recent (and arguably extreme) homage to Alpine past and present slots in among countless concepts and mockups including the A110 SportsX mild off-roader and even a Gordon Murray revised vision that turned out to be nothing more than a schoolboy getting overexcited on social media.

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