Here is Annie, my 1985 Talbot Alpine Minx. She is about to hit the road for the first time in nearly a decade.

The Alpine's origins could be traced back to 1972 after Chrysler, looking to expand their operations to the UK & Europe, acquired the Rootes group in the UK (1965) & Simca in France (1972). Their venture started rather tragically with the poorly received Chrysler 180, a car designed to take on the Ford Consul/Granada. Lack lustre engines & styling being the car's greatest failings.

A decision was made to design a car that would replace the successful, yet old-fashioned Hillman Avenger/Hunter & Simca 1500 so it could take on the Ford Cortina/Taunus, Austin Maxi, Renault 16 & upcoming Volkswagen Passat. The first deciding factor was the engineering, whether it should be Rootes or Simca engineered. Simca proposed that the car, codenamed C6, should be based on their highly successful Simca 1100 with Front wheel drivem, Torsion bar front suspension & independent trailing arms where-as Rootes proposed basing it on the Hillman avenger running gear, making it rear wheel drive with Rootes' own alloy headed four-cylinder engines ranging from 1300 to 1725cc, Macpherson struts up front & a live rear axle hung on Coil springs. It was also suggested that UK & European cars would feature differing running gears for their home markets, though the development costs to design a passenger car which could accommodate both suspension & Engine setups would be uneconomical, so the Simca proposal was accepted, though their were doubts about what engines would propel the UK cars. One proposal even suggested using the Leyland E series engine & Gearbox from the Austin Maxi, though this was dropped & the Simca OHV Poissy engines was standard across both markets.

In charge of the styling was Roy Axe from his Coventry based studio. Axe had already experienced success with the Sunbeam Alpine/Rapier fastbacks from 1967 & the Hillman Avenger. He envisioned a clean, fuss-free look for the car & indeed strove towards a future where even the most average of cars would have crisp, handsome & modern styling. The car was designed with a fastback profile with fifth door to allow greater practicality & to allow the car to better rival the Renault 16 & Austin Maxi.

Eventually, the car was launched in October 1975 as the Simca 1307 in France to great critical acclaim from journalists & even picked up a few awards along the way, including the European Car of the Year for 1976. The car came to the UK in January 1976 badged as the Chrysler Alpine, the name possibly to hark back to the Sunbeam Alpine sports car. Initial reception in the UK was positive, the Alpine managing to pull over 1600 sales in the March of that year.

Unfortunately, the first UK cars suffered in terms of build quality, having been built at the already stretched Simca Poissy plant while the Coventry Ryton plant was being re-equipped to build the cars. The first cars had poor panel fitment & a total lack of rust protection which hurt the car's reputation badly. By the time Ryton was updated for the Alpine & quality improved significantly, the damage was done & the Chrysler Alpine only achieved a modest success, where-as the Simca 1307 held an 11% share of the French market.

By 1979, Chrysler had deemed their European venture a failure & offered to sell the former Rootes & Simca Assets. The French government persuaded the PSA group (Peugeot) to buy the assets for the total of $1. The old marque Talbot was revived & the Alpine was facelifted for the 1980 model year before it's range expanded to the booted Solara in 1981.

1985 was the beginning of the end for the Talbot Marque, the Solara & Alpine were offered as high-trim run out models, these being named Minx & Rapier (once again resurrecting old Rootes' names). The Minx came with the 1.6 litre 90bhp Poissy engine & PSA BE-1 5 speed gearbox as standard as well as Power Assisted steering, remote driver's mirror, colour coding & rear compartment ventilation.

Annie is an October 1985 car, making her one of the last Alpines off the Ryton production line, as such, she was factory registered (WHP on the reg), loaned to an employee who would then put significant miles on the car before dropping her off at a dealership to be sold as a low mileage used car. That's right, Annie has never been sold as a New car, it's like a child being denied a first birthday! As such, she has no options, such as two-tone paint, alloy wheels (the ones she wears are aftermarket), sunroof or rear seatbelts.

If you want to see Annie's restoration, then you can watch the saga so far in this youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?li.....y9JgHOmHcTm7pv

If you want further uodates on the car, or myself & other content, then please subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/Hancockified

Enjoy & please leave a comment & fave