Chris Salter’s eclectic collection of vehicles includes one of the most obscure Car of The Year contest winners. Strange, perhaps, but true: the Alpine defeated the BMW 3-Series and the Renault 30TS to become COTY 1976 and Chrysler UK promoted it as embodying a new motoring style. It was also the second British-built front-wheel-drive hatchback; the first was the Austin Maxi in 1969. But, today, Salter’s Alpine is believed to be one of only 13 still on the road.

The Alpine evolved from Chrysler’s European division’s need to replace the Simca 1301/1501 and the Hillman Hunter. However, the development of “Project C6” was far from straightforward, and only a British government loan guaranteed its eventual production in the Ryton factory outside Coventry. 

Incredibly, Chrysler even contemplated building separate front- and rear-wheel-drive models, the former for France and southern Europe and the latter for the UK, Germany and northern Europe.

Eventually, limited funds resulted in a five-door saloon based on the Simca 1100 floorpan with bodywork by Roy Axe in Whitley, Coventry (now a Jaguar Land Rover design centre). The resulting Chrysler-Simca 1307/1308 debuted in October 1975 at the Paris motor show, while in that same month visitors to Earls Court could marvel at the identical Chrysler Alpine. Meanwhile, a somewhat cheap-looking slideshow prepared dealers for this critical new model.