Si les gens du marketing chez Renault trouvent le vocable Koleos dans l’air du temps, ils ont peut-être raison. Cela dit, ces mêmes gens n’ont jamais fait de grec ancien ou tout au mois ne se sont pas penchés sur l’étymologie de ce mot. En effet, le français « couille » provient du grec ancien… koleos !
Between the GT-R and the Z-car, Nissan has a rich history of fine sportscars. However, its French sister company is another story. Since discontinuing the Alpine in 1996, Renault's sporting spirit has had to subside on hot hatches and in its F1 program. Remarkable as they are, the French automaker has been working on bringing back the Alpine sportscar line, with a new model anticipated to debut sometime next year. That's a long way off, if you ask Brazilian design student Marcello Felipe Maggioni. So he's come up with a design of his own for the new Alpine.
The concept is characterized by a chopped-down greenhouse and low-slung headlamps, creating a wedge shape similar in style to the Lexus LF-A. Maggioni based the design around a mid-engine layout, with a homologated street-legal version of the high-revving 2.4-liter V8 from the Renault F1 car. Of course this is well beyond what Renault might actually produce to revive the Alpine nameplate, but if you're going to dream, why not dream big?
Renault is poised to scrap the next-generation Laguna and could virtually pull out of the large car market altogether, senior company sources have revealed. Renault's Sandouville - which current builds the Laguna, unsuccessful Vel Satis executive hatchback and the ageing Espace MPV - will start building commercial vehicles as well by 2011. By then its expected that the Vel Satis and Espace will have been phased out. And although Laguna production will continue alongside the commercial vehicles, it will not be replaced when it dies, probably by late 2011. Last autumn Renault announced that it had suspended development work on its future large cars, including the next generation Renault Espace. The company indicated that it wanted to reassess the concepts in light of market moves towards smaller, more environmentally friendly vehicles.
Il n'y aura pas une héritière ni pour Laguna ni pour Espace??
J'ai d'ailleurs appris il n'y a pas très longtemps que le V6 PRV est le seul
moteur avec le Flat 6 Porsche a avoir été retenu pour équiper l'aéronautique.