I admit, my fashion game is not as strong as I’d like it to be, but boy, do I pay attention when French clothing brand Lacoste turns up with a fellow French carmaker, Alpine, with a one-off electric rally car. Called ‘Beware of the Crocodile,’ of course, it’s got crocs all over it.
The A290 Rallye hot hatch debuted a year ago, and this Locoste x Alpine special edition is probably its meanest iteration yet. It’s a collaboration that extends to a capsule collection that includes polos, T-shirts, lightweight outerwear, caps and key rings. But I’m less concerned with all that and more with the car.
For starters, there are no mechanical changes from the car it’s based on, so yes, it’s still technically perfectly drivable. I say that because a car that looks like this can very easily be mistaken for a show or a concept car that’s only supposed to sit on display and look pretty.
Not the A290 Rallye – it runs on a single electric motor that spits out 220 hp and 147.5 lb.ft (300 Nm) of torque, transmitted to the front axle with the help of a ZF limited-slip differential. That propels it from zero to 62 mph (100 km/h) in all of 6.4 seconds. The battery is a 52-kWh pack that’s reported good for about 236 miles (380 km) of range.
Alpine x Lacoste
What this special trim does get updated over the standard one is the suspension setup. ALP Racing shocks come at both ends with a McPherson multi-link in the rear. The electric vehicle (EV) rolls on 18-inch EVO Corse wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport A tires.
Stopping power comes from six-piston monoblock calipers on 350-mm discs up front and single-piston calipers on 280-mm discs in the back. There’s also a handy hydraulic handbrake.
Now comes the part that’s unique only to this trim. The familiar French fashion house’s signature croc dominates the bodywork, while the clean white and red colorway runs the length of the car. It’s a livery that’s less ‘factory race team’ and more ‘Paris Fashion Week meets Monte Carlo.’
It sports a neat diffuser, roof air intake, wings, and flared wheel arches. That front bumper is reworked with red accents, and there are dashes of carbon fiber everywhere. The aero-disc-inspired rally wheels are finished in white.
Alpine x Lacoste
There are at least 290 crocodiles across the EV, and they’re everywhere, literally. Especially inside, from the petit piqué cloth door panels, the dashboard, the steering wheel, and even the rally seats’ seatbelts, all the way to the back of the cabin, where you’d typically find the rear window, there’s a big Lacoste croc lying in wait. The red is much more prominent inside – perhaps to give you the feeling that you’re sitting inside the crocodile’s mouth.
Unlike most others, this collaboration feels surprisingly authentic. Alpine and Lacoste are both French brands with long histories built around performance, albeit in very different arenas. One built its reputation carving through Alpine passes and dominating rally stages; the other became synonymous with timeless sportswear born from the tennis court.
Eric Vallat, chief executive officer of Lacoste, stated that the two companies share “the same culture of innovation, shaped since their origins by pioneers convinced that performance is born as much from ingenuity as from mastery of detail.”
The A290 Rallye hints at a changing perception of electric motorsport. Early EV race cars often looked as though they were trying too hard to convince everyone they belonged. The A290 doesn’t. It embraces its compact proportions, wears its electric credentials confidently, and proves that battery powered competition cars can still have personality.
Alpine x Lacoste
If anything, the Lacoste treatment amplifies that confidence by showing that performance and style no longer have to exist at opposite ends of the spectrum. And it doesn’t even bother me that this special edition will probably never make it to production.
That’s because cars like this exist to spark conversations, and in that respect, it’s already succeeded. It’s a reminder that motorsport has always been about more than stopwatch times and podium finishes. Sometimes it’s about capturing people’s imagination.
Source: Alpine Cars
