Alpine is taking its one-off Lacoste A290 Rallye to the Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille concours on 13 September. The collaboration car, officially called Beware of the Crocodile, is based on the most extreme version of the electric A290 hot hatch and carries 290 crocodile references inside and out. It leads an Alpine line-up that also includes heritage cars covering 70 years of the brand, plus customer and club machines.
Alpine will use one of France’s most style-conscious car gatherings to show a car that sits somewhere between motorsport hardware and fashion object. The one-off Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye is the centrepiece of the brand’s presence at the Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille on 13 September, where it will be displayed on the Alpine stand and driven down the runway for the event’s “Concours d’élégance”.
A collaboration built around a crocodile’s tongue
The car’s full name is Beware of the Crocodile – Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye, and its design brief started with a single detail: the red of the crocodile’s tongue from Lacoste’s logo. Alpine says that colour was then carried through the whole car, exterior and cabin alike, as a running theme rather than a set of decals. The interior is trimmed in a deep red and uses Lacoste’s petit piqué fabric — the same weave the brand has used on polo shirts since 1933 — while 290 separate crocodile references are worked into the design.
It is a one-off, and Alpine presents it as a design object first. But the base underneath it is not a styling exercise.
Based on the hardest version of the A290
The donor car is the Alpine A290 Rallye, which the company describes as the most extreme and performance-focused derivative of its electric hot hatch. According to Alpine, that specification brings widened tracks, a reinforced braking system and dedicated management of the electric powertrain, all aimed at the immediate response and precision the competition car is built around.
The manufacturer has not released technical figures for this particular car in the announcement, so power, battery capacity and performance numbers are not confirmed here.
Seventy years of Alpine on the lawn
The Lacoste car will not stand alone. Alpine is bringing a selection of heritage models spanning 70 years of the brand, founded in 1955 by Jean Rédélé, alongside cars owned by customers and club members. The company frames the display as its past, present and future in one place.
That mix reflects where Alpine currently sits. The brand launched the A290 hot hatch in 2024 and followed it with the A390 sport fastback in 2025, while the A110 sports car continues alongside them. Alpine also competes in Formula 1 and the World Endurance Championship, and runs customer racing programmes in rally, cup and GT4.
What it means
Chantilly is a concours, not a motor show, and that is the point. Putting a rally-derived electric hatchback on the same lawn as classic coachwork is a deliberate argument that Alpine’s EV era belongs in the brand’s design lineage rather than apart from it — a pitch other performance marques making the same transition will recognise.
Facts: Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye
- Type: one-off collaboration car between Alpine and Lacoste
- Full name: Beware of the Crocodile – Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye
- Base: Alpine A290 Rallye, the brand’s most performance-focused A290 derivative
- Chassis changes stated: widened tracks, reinforced braking system, dedicated electric powertrain management
- Interior: red cabin with Lacoste petit piqué fabric, 290 crocodile references
- Public appearance: Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille, 13 September
The car will be on the Alpine stand at Chantilly on 13 September and will also take part in the concours parade.
Source: media.alpinecars.com