The Alpine A424 is an LMDh sports prototype racing car designed by Automobiles Alpine and built by Oreca to compete in the Le Mans Hypercar class in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Background
On 5 October 2021, Alpine formally announced an entry into the FIA World Endurance Championship starting from the 2024 season, using an LMDh-compliant racing design. It was also confirmed on the same day that Oreca was chosen as the chassis supplier for their LMDh contender.
Alpine unveiled a prototype show car, named the A424_β (pronounced "A424 Beta"), on 9 June 2023, at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was also announced that the car would use a hybrid powertrain, consisting of a Mecachrome 90° V6 single turbocharged internal combustion engine and standardized hybrid drivetrain components provided by Williams Advanced Engineering, Bosch and Xtrac, and that Signatech would run two cars.
The car is built on the "next generation" Oreca LMP2 chassis. The A424's engine is said to be a "heavily modified" version of the Mecachrome V634 engine used in the FIA Formula 2 Championship; Alpine confirmed that the car's engine was unrelated to the engine briefly used in the Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 car. Dyno tests for the engine were completed on 28 June. The car was first fired up on July 5. The aim for the program is to complete 2 shakedown tests at Lurcy-Lévis at the end of August, following which the car will embark on its first test. The test programme will involve running at Circuit Paul Ricard, Motorland Aragón, Jerez and Portimão. The car will compete in 2024 as the A424.