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Official: Renault & Caterham to build Alpine sports cars

Renault has confirmed it is to partner with Caterham to build a range of Alpine sports cars in Dieppe from 2015. The partnership between Renault and Caterham is a logical extension of their F1 partnership but now, with the joint venture to produce their own sports cars, goes much deeper than the almost badge-engineering Williams Renaults. A new company - Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham – will be jointly owned by Caterham and Renault and will develop models in small and large volumes to be marketed as both Renault Alpine and Caterham, and will be built in Renault’s Dieppe factory that currently churns out Renaultsport models for the road and track, and is the historical home of Alpine.

Spyker B6 Venator Spyder on the way

But much of that will probably depend on real buyers stumping up real money to get on the waiting list for a car we still don’t know a great deal about (in particular what underpins it) but which does look good and manages to encompass Spyker’s traditional styling cues whilst still conspiring to look very current. Now, buried amongst the latest financial report from Spyker – which shows no real turnover or profit, loans in to shares and an injection of cash from Youngman – comes the news that Victor is already getting a bit ahead of himself again with plans to reveal the B6 Venator Spyder later this year. That looks a bit of a ‘run before you can walk’ scenario for Spyker - especially as Victor says production of the C8 Aileron will gather pace this year and the D8 Peking-to-Paris SUV will be a priority – but if Spyker can produce a Venator Spyder that looks as good as the coupe it may be the right way forward.

Infiniti G37 Convertible – UK details

The Infiniti G37 Convertible launches in the UK We’ve got used, particularly of late, to thinking of high-end, sporty Nissans as hard-edged machines, capable of taking on the best supercars on the planet. The Nissan GT-R has been an unmitigated success, astonishing all who’ve driven it not only with its performance but with its relatively bargain price. But Infiniti is about comfort not performance.