After months of speculation, the design of Renault's->ke72 Alpine sports car is finally ready and we're getting a clearer picture that the car is on schedule for a 2016 release.

Not a lot of details have been announced regarding this new lightweight sports car->ke506, but Renault's senior vice president of corporate design Laurens van den Acker did leak a little info when he told Motoring at the Geneva Motor Show->ke228 that the design of the Alpine sports car is "as good as finished".

That's the strongest indication we've had that the sports car is nearing production, and since it came from a man who actually had a hand in the design of the car, then you can bet that we're taking that to the bank.

van den Acker did stop short of spilling all the beans about the Alpine sports car, which is pretty understandable considering the lengths by which Renault has tried to keep the car under wraps for this long. Besides, 2016 is still two years away and a lot of things can happen, but make no mistake, there's a sense of excitement coming out of the Renault camp on the current status of the Alpine sports car.

If it ends up being all that and then some, then you can be sure that the Alpine sports car will immediately make waves in the market. In fact, it's still two years before it's expected launch and the market is already abuzz, so imagine all the hype once we get closer to 2016.

Click past the jump to read more about the 2012 Renault Alpine A110-50 Concept.

2012 Renault Alpine A110-50 Concept

The Renault Alpine project is actually a joint venture that will also net Caterham->ke1252 with an all-new sports car with similar styling. Based on the excellent Alpine A110-50 Concept, the future Alpine sports car has a lot to live up to, especially when you consider how well-received the concept was when it was first introduced in 2012.

While the Alpine Concept carried a 3.5-liter V-6 that produced up to 400 horsepower, speculation surrounding the production model's output has it closer to 250 horsepower with the Caterham model being slightly more powerful at 300 horsepower.