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A new Renault 5 EV is coming, but this is the one you actually want – Alpine’s homage to the R5 Turbo

- JASON BARLOW

Concept cars usually go one of two ways. They're either pie in the sky flights of fancy into a fantasy world that'll never happen. Or they're a bona fide preview of a future design direction reverse engineered into something that's almost entirely feasible. With a few little caveats.

The Alpine 290_B falls firmly into the latter category. This is a relief because it has a big job on its hands. Alpine, of course, is Renault's performance arm, maker of the exemplary A110, not to mention a pretty effective Formula One team. But if you've been wondering what's next on the road car front, here's the answer. And here's the mission statement: the 290_B trails the car that will reboot the hot hatch for the electric era.

Chief designer Raphael Linari smiles the smile of someone who knows that something truly tasty sits before us, then says that 85 per cent of the exterior design is identical to the real thing. Good news, because this is one of the most instantly appealing show cars TG has seen in years.

Then he says something we didn't expect to hear. "Alpine's test driver Laurent Hurgon has spent the past few weeks setting this car up. We knew from the beginning that we wanted a running prototype, a car we could drive before an F1 race perhaps. That's why it has a roll cage and look at that handbrake... I promise you, it all works!"

TG has previous with Laurent Hurgon. He took us around the track at Renault's gigantic Aubevoye test facility in an A110 prototype six months before launch back in 2018, and made that thing dance at speeds you wouldn't think possible. He's a wizard.