Sunbeam Alpine
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The Alpine was a small sporty coupe from Rootes' Sunbeam marque. It was launched in 1953 as the first vehicle to bear the Sunbeam name alone since the 1920 merger of Sunbeam, Talbot, and Darracq. The Alpine was derived from the previous Sunbeam-Talbot 90, and has since become colloquially known as the "Talbot" Alpine. It was an entertaining four-cylinder car, but since it was developed from a saloon platform, it suffered some serious drawbacks, and remained in production only two years.
Kenneth Howes and Jeff Crompton were tasked with doing a complete redesign in 1956, with the goal of producing a dedicated sports car aimed principally at the American market. Ken Howes contributed some 80% of the overall design work, which bears more than incidental resemblance to the early Ford Thunderbird - Ken Howe worked at Ford before joining Rootes.
The 'Series' Alpine started production in 1959, and was produced in four subsequent revisions through to 1968. Total production numbered around 70,000. The car enjoyed relative success in competition, both in Europe and in North America, but the overall sentiment was that the Alpine lacked power. Successive increases in displacement and engine tuning improved the car tremendously, but Rootes executives were looking for something to transform the car, rather than an evolutionary development. They eventually found it in the (then) newly-introduced small-block V8 from Ford, and a subsequent collaboration with Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, and other sportscar racers in the US would result in creation of the Sunbeam Tiger.
The Alpine name would be resurrected in 1976 by Chrysler (now the owner of Rootes) on a totally unrelated vehicle that could not have been more different - the UK-market version of the Simca 1307, a French-built family hatchback. The car was initially badged as the Chrysler Alpine, and then finally as the Talbot Alpine following Chrysler Europe's takeover by Peugeot in 1978.