<< Paul Gilbert writes:
>The owner quizzed me
> about what type of car it was and then showed me a '69 Alpine sedan that
> could be described as a fast back. He said it had lots of Chrysler
> parts and it was ugly enough to have been designed by Plymouth. Now
> today on the list I see a '69 fastback mentioned. What gives here?
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Chrysler marketed a small fastback under the name Alpine in the late
'60s/early '70s. In the USA this car was known as the Plymouth Arrow.
There is some information on the web at
http://www.team.net/www/rootes/sunbeam/alpine/mk1-5/images/69gt_ad.gif
and http://www.team.net/www/rootes/sunbeam/alpine/mk1-5/images/69gt_ad2.gif.
>>
OK, time for some classification, here!
Whilst there was a Plymouth Arrow here in the US, it was NOT a Rootes product, but a Mitsubishi. We did, however , have a Sunbeam Arrow, which was a Hillman Hunter variant. The fastback Alpine in question was a Rapier in the UK. Since the National Highway Traffic Safety Act of 1968 wouldn't let them continue to sell the Alpine roadster in the US (for numerous reasons), Chrysler filled the gap with the fastback Rapier in two forms. The Alpine Coupe was the lesser, single carb version, and the Alpine GT the sportier twin carb model. I have owned an Alpine Coupe, and it was a great car, pleasant to drive and very nimble. Imagine , if you will, a 3/4 scale 1966 Barracuda, and you have a pretty good idea of the basic design. Just to continue the trend, there was also the Plymouth Cricket of 71 & 72, of which I currently have one example. This was a Hillman Avenger, suitably rebadged for the US market. Not quite as peppy as the Alpine Coupe, but a respectable economy sedan, and a good rally car. The main confusion of Chrysler's import models in the early 70s, was that they were phasing out the UK models, and phasing in the Japanese. Too bad for us they didn't stick it out with the UK models.... just think, we could all claim to have cars related to Mercedes Benz!
Jon Arzt Rootes(at)aol.com
61 Humber Super Snipe 62 Humber Super Snipe 66 Sunbeam Alpine 67 Sunbeam Highwayman camper 72 Plymouth Cricket
