Now that Renault has brought back the Alpine name, there’s a ton of interest in classic A110s. After all, they’re exciting, beautiful, and rare rally legends. Unfortunately, that’s also caused a huge price spike: clean ones can fetch around $150,000. The good news is—if you’re looking for the experience and are not as concerned about the pedigree—you can find identical cars for cheaper.
Welcome to You Must Buy, our daily look at the cars you really should be buying instead of that boring commuter sedan.
See, the A110 was built around under different names. Brazilians could buy Interlagos-built A110s, while Bulgarians were offered Bulgaralpines. And in Mexico, you could get a Dinalpin A110 like this one.
The Dinalpin was built in partnership with DINA (Diesel Nacional), but it’s the same as any other A110. This is an early example, with a 1.1-liter, 67-horsepower engine powering the rear wheels through a 5-speed manual transmission. It’s painted The Good Color, Alpine Blue as all of these should be. It’s also been fully restored, even if the admittedly weak photos don’t do a great job of showing it off.
More importantly, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than a normal A110. With only two days left on the auction, the current leading bid is $42,500.00. Sure it’ll climb from there, but it seems less likely that the deep-pocketed buyers bidders who pack Sotheby’s auctions will see this cross their screens.
But for a discerning reader, you’re getting something truly special. It’s still got the amazing history and gorgeous design of the Alpine A110, but it’s even weirder and rarer. Per the seller, only 508 Dinaplins were built. Sure, it may not appreciate as much as a more traditional example, but if you want to drive your A110, there’s no better way to get into one.
Source: Read Full Article