Alpine’s Alpenglow hydrogen racer will use a turbocharged four-cylinder with a 7,000rpm redline

Alpine has released fresh details of its Alpenglow Hy4 racer, which previews what we could expect from hydrogen-powered racing cars of the future.

As you can probably denote from the name, the ‘Hy’ stands for hydrogen and the ‘4’ for the number of cylinders the Alpenglow has. This turbocharged 2.0-litre powertrain puts 340bhp to the road and redlines at 7,000rpm, with all of those revolutions contributing to much noise en route to a limited top speed of 167mph.

Alpine also confirmed that a bigger, purpose-built V6 hydrogen combustion engine will be introduced later this year, and could be implemented into the Renault Group’s wider strategy moving forward.

It’s also quite a looker, isn’t it? Alpine says it’s a ‘seminal’ concept for the brand’s design language moving forward. Oh, what we’d give for our dailies to look like this in the next few years. 

Sprinkled atop the LMP3-inspired carbon monocoque chassis are a number of air inlets and fissures, presumably to provide some of that aero thingamabob that people can’t stop talking about these days. Out front sits a stunning set of headlamps, which mimic ‘cosmic dust’ light particles of a rogue object arriving from outer space. Right. Just below this, you’ll spot a neat splitter design accompanied by a bulbous mid-section. 

The shapely silhouette then leads round to a roof scoop, which has been stretched to link directly with the Alpenglow’s exposed long-tail rear. Here, vertical taillights, titanium exhaust tips and a transparent rear wing can be spotted. Nice touch nabbing Harry Potter’s cloak for the rear wing, there.

When you finally manage to pick your jaw up from the ground and open up the ‘Elytra’ doors, you’re treated to a set of moulded bucket seats and dials relaying your lateral Gs, speed and the number of Dementors you’ve slain today. We made that last one up.

The dashboard also features a swanky tubular crossbar, which apparently takes after an aircraft’s wing. Elsewhere, there’s plenty of Alcantara and carbon fibre lining the cabin, with Alpine even creating mounting hubs for action cameras… just so you can capture your very best ‘Alpine Alpenglow driving fails’ compilation with better precision. 

Vice president of Alpine Motorsports, Bruno Famin, said: "As part of our active participation in decarbonising motorsports, we see the hydrogen internal combustion engine as an extremely promising solution. We know that hydrogen will be an essential step in decarbonising the next generations of endurance cars, and could also be for Formula One cars, particularly by switching to liquid storage for greater compactness and performance."

The Alpine Alpenglow Hy4 will make its public debut at this weekend’s 6 Hours of Spa endurance race, which will include demonstration laps to see and hear the car at full chat.