The Renault Alpine A442 (also known as the Alpine Renault A442 ) is a sports prototype racing car, designed and built by Alpine, but funded and powered by Alpine's owners Renault, specifically to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Variants were entered for the event in 1976, 1977 and 1978. An A442B finally won the race on the third occasion, in the hands of Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud. Also entered in 1978 was the updated Renault Alpine A443 model; essentially an A442 chassis, but powered by a new 2138 cc engine. Following this all-French victory in the premier French motorsport event, Renault withdrew from sports car racing to concentrate their efforts in Formula One.
Design
Alpine had been working with increasingly close ties to Renault since 1971, and by the beginning of the A442 project in 1975 the two companies were almost completely merged. Renault finally bought Alpine outright in early 1976, Renault inheriting Alpine's sports prototype program. The A442 was a direct evolution of the successful Alpine A440 and title-winning A441 models. However, unlike the previous cars, the A442's 2.0L Renault-Gordini powerplant boasted a large Garrett turbocharger, pushing power output to . Over the next three years this would increase to well over , with the A443's 2.2L unit developing .
In common with the earlier cars, the engine was suspended inside a relatively small steel spaceframe chassis, which was then clothed in a much longer glassfibre body. The extra length of the body was mostly to be found in the tail section, to improve high-speed aerodynamic efficiency, and hence top speed on the long Mulsanne straight at Circuit de la Sarthe. The bodywork was a conventional open two-seater arrangement. Designed as a "hare", to stretch their Porsche 936 rivals to breaking point, the A443 also incorporated a slightly longer wheelbase. Following wind tunnel testing during the autumn and winter of 1977, the A442B and A443 were introduced in 1978 each sporting an acrylic glass "bubble" partial roof, resulting in an additional in top speed at la Sarthe, but reducing visibility from the driving seat. However, during practice for the 1978 Le Mans race, A443 drivers Patrick Depailler and Jean-Pierre Jabouille complained that the bubble made them feel claustrophobic and trapped engine heat inside the cockpit, making driving conditions intolerable. Therefore, only the A442B ever competed with the bubble in place.
By 1978, Gérard Larrousse had moved up from works driver to manage the Renault Sport team. He laid out the team's priorities: win at Le Mans, then focus all attention on repeating the success in Formula One. Renault ploughed a huge budget into developing the A442 into a Le Mans winner. Many hours were spent in testing, particularly using long airport runways to simulate the mechanical and aerodynamic stresses induced on the long, fast Mulsanne Straight. In addition, Renault's engine department went to work on squeezing as much power out of the five-year-old powerplant as was possible. Capacity was upped to 2138 cc, just short of the theoretical 2142 cc limit for turbocharged cars, and this revamped engine was installed into the new, lengthened chassis, becoming the A443.
In full qualifying trim, with the bubble roof, the A443 achieved a top speed of on the Mulsanne Straight, making it the fastest car ever produced by Renault, a record which still stands today and includes all of Renault's F1 entries.
Race history
The A442 made its competition debut in March 1975, at the Mugello 1000 km, with Jabouille and Larrousse, although other sources report the car to be an A441 with the new turbo engine. Despite the relatively underdeveloped turbo addition to the Renault engine, the car lasted long enough for the team to take a surprise win in its very first race. In the 1976 Nürburgring 300 km two Renaults qualified in the front row, only to crash out in the second corner. Subsequent repeated mechanical failures meant that going into the 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans the team had failed to win another race. That run of form was not to change, and the single car entered dropped out with engine failure before half of the 24 hours had elapsed.