You knew that it was out there. In the mountains. In the ether. The rally car for competing in the FIA’s R-GT class brimming with interesting rear-wheel-drive sports cars. And yet here it is, with the inimitable sports car rally master François Delecourat the wheel, sideways and farting fire.

My coworker Mike Ballaban was wondering why the WRC doesn’t just run R-GT as its top class. (Why isn’t R-GT just WRC? were his exact words.) While I absolutely adore the current top-spec hatchbacks, which are fast and extreme and almost violent in how they drive, spectacular to such a high degree, I get where he’s coming from.

These R-GT cars deserve more than a few Fiat entries a year and the odd old Porsche, which is , should you check the results on eWRC. Hopefully this Alpine changes things in a way that, say those Lotus cars never did.