Renault's exterior design chief Anthony Lo has dropped further hints as to the future design direction of Renault's reborn Alpine model.
Last week, Autocar sources revealed Renault is poised to imminently reveal a tie-up with Caterham to create a new Alpine in a deal that will also see the niche British sports car maker launch its own bespoke model based on the same platform.
Lo hinted that the platform to underpin a new Alpine would be an entirely new one, but maintained the official Renault line that it needed a partner with common interests if the Alpine rebirth was to be realised.
The hint that the Alpine revival would be based on a new platform would rule out Lotus's Evora platform and Fiat Auto's Alfa 4C base as potential donor cars for the new Alpine.
An Alpine concept revealed by Renault at the Monaco Grand Prix in May, which put DeZir styling on a Mégane Trophy racer was described by Lo as "misleading" in showing how a potential Alpine production car would look. But he maintained such a concept was necessary as it "made us truly realise that for Alpine to work we need a package for it [underpinnings] that doesn't exist today".
