Alp is at hand
The man who has the UK’S first A110
Vic Norman’s Alpine A110 arrived last week. The first righthand-drive A110 in customer hands. Not surprisingly, he’s extremely excited. More revved up about the arrival of a new car, he says, than he’s been in decades, perhaps ever.
That is quite a statement from an enthusiast whose back catalogue is dramatic in the extreme. At one time his garage contained not only a Ferrari 250 GTO but also an aluminium-bodied 250 SWB.
They were second-hand of course, but Norman also bought a new AC Cobra in the 1960s, a couple of new Dinos in the 1970s and a Ford GT40 that, according to Norman, was his wife’s shopping car. So why all this emotion over a small, French midengined sports car with only 250bhp?
“I’ve owned about a dozen Porsche 911s and my current one is a 997 Carrera 4,” says Norman. “It’s done around 110,000 miles but I’ve not thought about replacing it because the 911 has got too wide and heavy. It’s a shame because I used to have a real passion for those cars, but frankly they just turn me off now.
“I have a few classics, including an AC Ace and a Porsche 356, which I love for their simplicity and emotion, but I really didn’t think I’d ever buy a new car again.
“However, a year or so ago I was chatting to Gordon Murray, who is an old friend, and he said ‘Vic, you should see this new little Alpine A110’. I remember the Alpines from the 1960s and knew about their history. They were built for competition and were enormously successful and, I thought, very
I wouldn't swap the A110 for a new Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche
French – so small and efficient and lovely in their trademark blue. I’ve always associated blue with Alpine, just as I do red with Ferraris.
“After Gordon mentioned the car I read a few road tests and did some online research and everyone was raving about the car and how great it was. I started getting interested, not least because it was so different to today’s supercars, which are too big, too wide and too close to the ground. I have no interest in these cars; they do nothing for me. They’re fine if you simply want to show off, but they’re next to useless, have totally unusable performance and are too big for country roads.
“I got more and more interested in the Alpine, so I placed an order for an A110 Première Edition – in Alpine Blue of course. I knew I’d like it but I hadn’t sat in one or even seen one in the metal.
“When I went to collect it and first saw it I thought, ‘yeah, that looks really nice’, but I was thrilled when I opened the A110’s door and saw inside it for the first time.
“You see all the detail, the machining, the beautiful seats and where they’ve saved weight. I got the same feeling when I bought a Czech Zlin 50 aerobatic aeroplane which, like the Alpine, was made like a Swiss watch with the same attention to detail.
“There’s nothing in it that you don’t need yet it’s a very usable everyday car. It is easy to get in and out of and I like the automatic gearbox, which is perfect for modern driving. I’m not particularly technical but the multimedia system is useful: it’s handy being able to link your phone up to it.
“And relatively speaking this isn’t an expensive car. Certainly it’s going to be very easy to run and economical to look after. Ignoring the money side of it, I wouldn’t swap this car for a new Ferrari or Lamborghini, or a Porsche for that matter.”