The Renault Winter Olympics range of 1992 was a bit of all-white
Imagine throwing open the doors of your French chateau to discover this little lot parked on your immaculate gravel driveway. Allow that image to sink in for a moment. It's a glorious thing, isn't it?
What you see before you is the range of Renault vehicles launched to coincide with the company's sponsorship of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville. It's as though Renault set out to create a Petrolblog dream garage of the future.
In reality, Renault lent 1,500 cars to the Olympic Organisation Committee and launched a range of Albertville 92 cars to mark the occasion. So what do we have, aside from the best collection of white cars since Chris Evans started collecting expensive Fiats?
In a clockwise direction, starting with the Renault Clio, we find a Renault 21, Renault Espace, Jeep Cherokee, Renault 25, Renault 19 and – at the centre of attention – an A610.
The quite excellent Auto Series Limitees website is able to provide further details for each model in the series and it's well worth setting aside a few hours to get lost in history. All cars in the Olympic series were painted white and featured bespoke Olympic badges. Note the white wheels: either hubcaps or alloy wheels, depending on the car in question.
Choosing a favourite is kind of like being asked to select a favourite child - it's either impossible or will depend on how well they're behaving on a particular day. Given these cars are now 24-years-old, there's a very good chance they could be up to mischief and prone to throwing the odd hissy fit.
Ignoring the obvious appeal of the A610, the V6-engined Renault Espace Albertville 92 is a rather attractive proposition, although for pure rarity reasons, the 21 and 25 look rather splendid.
Only two Alpine A610 Albertville 92 models were ever built, making it the rarest of the bunch. Have a look at the Auto Series Limitees website for a photo of one parked on a French street. C'est magnifique!
Unsurprisingly, the most common model was the Renault Clio, with 1,800 built to mark Renault's sponsorship of Albertville 1992. Buyers paid 94,200 francs for the privilege of owning this snow-coloured marvel – a premium of just under 11,000 francs. For that, they were treated to electric and heated mirrors, light grey leather, uprated car stereo, logos and those delightful Glacier-painted hubcaps.
We understand Nicole had one fitted with winter tyres for use at Papa's second home in Chamonix. Probably.
Aside from the brilliantly-named Buick Century Olympia, these have to be the best Olympic-themed things since Little Chef invented the Olympic Breakfast. If you own one, do get in touch to share your experience. Perhaps we should arrange a 25th anniversary get-together in 2017? Petrolblog will provide the chateau (read: autoroute rest area) and you can provide the vehicles. Novelty Albertville 92 mascots and oversized sports wear are essential requirements.
Thanks to Renault UK for sourcing the photos.
