A Rally Car With a Bite
The star of this unlikely partnership is a one-off concept car officially named the 'Beware of the Crocodile - Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye'. This is not some polished grand tourer destined for showroom floors. Instead, the brands chose the A290 Rallye as
their canvas, a stripped-down electric vehicle built for the mud and gravel of customer motorsport. The car is finished in a frosty white, accented with bold, aggressive red highlights on its aerodynamic components. But the defining feature, and the source of its delightful weirdness, is the rear. The conventional back window has been replaced by a massive graphic of a red crocodile head that seems to be bursting out from the car’s spoiler. The design, described as almost cartoonish, is a nod to the red tongue inside Lacoste's iconic logo, and to drive the point home, designers have hidden 290 subtle crocodile logos throughout the vehicle.
An Unlikely Pairing
On the surface, Alpine and Lacoste feel like they come from different worlds. Alpine, founded by Jean Rédélé, is a brand forged in the fires of motorsport, known for its lightweight, agile, and performance-obsessed sports cars that have conquered rally stages and race tracks. Its identity is rooted in raw engineering and driving purity. Lacoste, on the other hand, is the epitome of French sporting elegance. Founded by tennis legend René Lacoste, nicknamed 'the Crocodile' for his on-court tenacity, the brand is synonymous with the classic polo shirt, preppy style, and the leisurely world of country clubs and tennis courts. The pairing of a gritty rally car brand with a refined fashion label is, to put it mildly, an odd couple. One screams performance, the other whispers sophistication.
Deviating from the Luxury Playbook
Automotive-fashion collaborations typically follow a well-worn path. Think Bugatti and Hermès creating a one-of-a-kind Chiron with bespoke leather, or Lamborghini and Versace adorning a supercar's interior with signature prints. These partnerships work because they merge two worlds of extreme luxury, focusing on craftsmanship and exclusivity for a wealthy clientele. The Alpine-Lacoste project gleefully ignores this tradition. It’s not about supple leather or a matching luggage set; it's about taking a functional, aggressive competition machine and plastering a giant crocodile on it. The choice of a rally car over a sleek roadster deliberately subverts expectations, trading quiet luxury for a loud, playful, and almost brash statement that feels more inspired by street art than high fashion.
The Method in the Madness
So, is it just weird for the sake of being weird? Not entirely. Dig a little deeper, and a shared philosophy emerges. Both René Lacoste and Jean Rédélé were relentless innovators obsessed with performance, lightness, and functional design in their respective fields. This concept car celebrates that shared French ingenuity. More pragmatically, this is a masterful piece of marketing theatre. The car is a one-off 'halo' product, not for sale, designed to grab headlines and launch an accompanying co-branded capsule clothing collection. The project was also promoted with a short film starring BWT Alpine Formula One driver Pierre Gasly. In a world saturated with predictable brand deals, creating something so visually arresting and unexpected guarantees attention. Its weirdness is its greatest asset.
