Twintest: cheeky Frenchcoupes

Siblings go head to head for victory. Will sharper and stiffer be better?

You want to buy an Alpine A110. Of course you do. It’s the coupe that does things differently – bucks the trend for more power and weight, spins the virtuous circle back the other way. You’ve already decided it’s the right coupe for you, over and above a Toyota Supra, Porsche Cayman or Audi TT, which means you’ve justified the miniscule stowage and the fact it’s both French and almost £50,000. But now, a curveball. Which A110? The standard version, or the newly arrived S?

The S gains 40bhp and 0lb ft, loses 1mpg and no g/km, gains 6mph and shaves a whole 0.1secs from the 0–62mph. It’s also £10,000 more expensive than a base version. As with so much about Alpine, the numbers don’t tell the whole story. This is a sharper Alpine, a fundamentally redirected car, a change akin to the difference between a standard 911 and a GT3. The extra power exists to work the modified suspension harder. The ride height drops 4mm, the tyres are 10mm wider front and rear. These are detail changes. Coil springs that are 50 per cent stiffer and anti-roll bars 100 per cent firmer are not small tweaks. There’s also uprated Brembo brakes, recalibrated ESP and an optional carbon-fibre roof.

Here’s the crux of the matter: do the changes make the A110S more fun to drive? Worms, meet can. So let’s answer that with another question. How are you planning on using your Alpine? Just for the weekends? Or every day? The S is more compromised. You’ll enjoy it on good blats, but if you’re crawling about it’s busier, more buzz through the suspension, sharper over bumps, a little more fidgety. The standard car is more dextrous. You might be crawling to work, but you’ll marvel at the way it absorbs the surface, how it treads so lightly.

Get on a good road and that gives the A110 a very particular flavour. It flows. The wheels seem to reach down from above, to only lightly brush the surface. You guide it along and relish the signals it’s sending you. All you need do is sit back and enjoy the sensations.

The S asks more of you. It gives you reason to use high revs because that’s where the extra power is tucked away, and when you go there it not only hits harder, but sounds crisper, there’s more gravel in its vocal chords. It tells you more about the road surface and about itself: how strong the chassis is, how exceptional the wheel control, how accurate the damping. And because of this extra information, you rise to the bait, start driving harder. It sucks you in.

But in sharpening the A110S, Alpine has also made it feel more conventional, more like every other fast car in its stiffness and control. The standard car does the daily stuff better, but more than that, it does it differently. There is nothing else like it. Nothing that embraces softness and lightness of touch in the same way. Beyond that, I think it’s the better flagbearer, a clearer representation of what Alpine stands for and the benefits of lightweighting. It’s the one to have.