Today we are in the company of a Dutchman who’s keen on driving a particular French coupe in a historic Italian road race. After acquiring it from a loving owner who’d taken care of the car for the last twenty years, Mark Geessink became the proud owner of this rare piece of automotive history. The A106 was the first car to wear the Alpine badge, and only a few years after founder Jean Rédelé created the polyester-bodied car based on Renault running gear, it found success in Italy when it won its class in the 1956 Mille Miglia. The model’s history is kept alive and well thanks to current caretakers like Mark, who’s competed in the modern-day version of the race since 2014, always completing the full route in the small but stalwart Alpine.