Classic Car Buyer - Rally Greats poll

The weekly newspaper Classic Car Buyer has published a Rally Greats Review where they featured twelve cars including the A110. They are now asking for readers to vote for their top six and so this note is to encourage you to vote, hopefully with the A110 as your top choice.

So few people understand about the significant impact of the A110 that if Alpine fans don’t get organised it is almost inevitable that the usual cars will head the lists.

The information is set out below and if you do send a vote the final sentence about Kelsey making contact should be omitted if you do want to be contacted.

Two participants will receive a copy of Classic Car Buyer’s Guide.

The cars are:

Alpine A110, Volvo Amazon, Lancia Delta, Ford Escort, Subaru Impreza, Jaguar Mk VII, Porsche 911, Audi Quattro, Sunbeam Rapier, Ford Sierra Cosworth, Jaguar XK120.

You can send your list to ccb.ed@kelseypb.co.uk with the email subject line Rally Greats Review

The required information format is:

Name:
Address:
E-mail address:
Phone Number:

My Top Twelve Choices
1. Alpine Renault A110
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

I would prefer Kelsey NOT to contact me about other relevant promotions within their business.

Thanks to everyone that votes with the A110 at the top of their list.

Tim Moores

[stephendell]

Hi Tim,

Hopefully a few people here will vote for the Alpine!

Sorry chaps, as far as this one goes the Integrale gets my vote every time!

Wow, that is brave MrFaulks, I also have a lot of love for the intergralle as I used to have a rosso red Evo1 and I loved it. If it is on what a car has won then the Lancia is in a class of it's own and should be the winner, but for me it is all about Alpine's for me and the a110 will get my vote!!!

[BIG_MVS]

Audi Quattro wins this hands down I'm afraid. The original 4WD Turbo charged Rally Car.

A110 is a wonderful car but I am too young to remember it in the rally scene.

No more takers?

Nice pic Mr. MVS, real rally stuff, mad tight in spectators

First turbo rally car was an A110.
The Quattro was one hell of a car but only in the top flight for maybe three or four seasons.
The Integrale's succes over several seasons was amazing, the 037 an even more awesome vehicle and before that the Stratos that was developed in Lancia's words explicitly to beat the A110. All fantastic rally weapons but the A110 prepared in the back streets of Dieppe was in the top flight against bigger engined cars, 911s etc, for more than a decade and produced amazing results on a relatively small budget.
I have only driven a Stratos once but it was damp and the memory of that short wheelbase wide track car lives with me to this day. However, my 1800cc A110 brings the same smile to my face.
It just seems a bit of a privilege that we can experience the cars produced by these legendary manufacturers.

[BIG_MVS]

First turbo rally car was an A110

It wasn't 4WD though was it

There is another great missing from the list though...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8bO7OfUgqg

Sorry, why is the A110 not being 4WD a negative?
The A110 was in the top flight of international rallying for more than a decade whilst putting its drive through two wheels in the face of competition with significantly greater financial support and greater capacity engines.
Relative to the A110's success against 2WD opposition the Audi Quattro did not last too long when faced with developed 4WD Gr. B cars like the Integrale, 205T16 and the Metro 6R4.
Why would you want to drive a car with 4WD when you can drive a car that does this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcEnMf5AtNo
?

[mettersl]

They are both great but only one brought 4wd and turbo charging into the game- and started the group B death race.....I remember sitting in the Welsh forests in 1983/84 watching these things fly by- wonderful if a bit cold!
Quattro wins for me, the other 4WD cars are just incremental improvements......

A110 was and is great but its an older concept and wasn't top level competitive when I was watching rallying nevertheless it still gets a vote though.

Lee

Tim agree with what you say - all points, and yes the 037 was an incredible piece of kit. Stratos, yes without doubt, but you have to vote with your heart, and not your brain I believe in these matters. Hence, for me as an average guy on the street, who identifies with a marques for what ever reason in this particular category, and most likely will follow something you could possibly own than not, and the not being the A110 compared to the Integrale... then putting average punter hat on - Integrale gets it for me whether I happen to like and respect the engineering, capability, pedigree and history of other Alpines or not.

But if it’s a case of taking one for the team, then I’m sure I can be persuaded by being take out in one in action

[BIG_MVS]

Sorry, why is the A110 not being 4WD a negative?

I never said it was, just saying that the Quattro was the first successful 4WD Turbo rally car. Thus in my opinion is my all time great rally car.

[stephendell]

Sadly there is a theory that classic car interest and hence values moves in peaks and troughs according to living memory and this is also related to the amount of disposable income that people have when they reach a certain age.

There will always be notable exceptions to this and certain cars will always be collectable, but generally your average middle aged joe with a reasonable diposable income will be prepared to pay most for classic cars that he saw in action or idolised as a teenager. His poster cars.

It would seem that for many people on the site this is proving to be the case and the sports/ rally cars of the late 70's early 80's Stratos/Quattro and all the Group B cars are simply more memorable and hence more iconic / desirable to them. They probably just missed out on the A110 which while still probably historically desirable and collectable to someone with a general interest in Alpines may not appeal quite so much as a car they actually saw in action on a rally stage.

I'm sure that conversely the same is true for many owners of the A110 & 8 Gordinis for example as many of them will have wanted the cars as a result of presumably seeing them in action in the late 60's early 70's.

The problem is that as the values of the older cars peak it takes them out of reach of the next generation of enthusiast who would not necessarily be prepared to pay such a premium for them so they end up in museums and collections instead. Similarly the values of the cars from the next generation then start to peak until they too become unaffordable for the average enthusiast.

Of course some people have no interest in classic cars at all and just want the latest and fastest model...

I remember reading an article about this in Classic and Sports Car a couple of years ago with a few graphs of values they had tracked over time to illustrate the point.

However if anyone has an A110 going cheap please point them in my direction

+ they also look feckin ace with a roof chop and slammed innit

Hi Tim,

Hopefully a few people here will vote for the Alpine!

probably not as most of the owners are in the "Other" club