Gordini-tuned engine breathes through big Webers
Getting into an original Alpine A110 is something of an art. You have to contort and wriggle and squirm your way in, and once installed you sit low down between the sill and slim centre console, with barely any headroom to spare. It’s almost as though Alpine founder Jean Rédélé took two small seats and an engine and shrinkwrapped them in glassfibre. It was a recipe that had begun in 1952 with a single Michelotti-styled sports car based on the Renault 4CV floorpan. A second car was built in 1953, but it was not until 1955 that the definitive Alpine A106 production car appeared. In 1957 an A106 cabriolet concept was based on a new Alpinedesigned tubular backbone chassis and styled by Michelotti. Dieppe converted the cabriolet shape into a new production car, the 1960 A108 Berlinette, by adding a fastback roof with an Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS rear screen. That body style was largely carried over to the A110 in 1962, though the radiator was now behind the engine instead of in front so the cooling air intakes on the sides of the body were deleted.
In the back there was a Gordini-tuned version of the new 956cc five-bearing Cléon-fonte four-cylinder engine from the Renault R8, but larger and larger motors would follow during the A110’s long life – there were some 15 different variants in total. The car had an illustrious competition career, which reached its pinnacle in 1973 – Alpine’s Jean-luc Thérier won three rallies that year and there were also victories for Jean-claude Andruet, Bernard Darniche and Jean-pierre Nicolas, to give Alpine the first World Rally Championship title.
This car is a 1600S, introduced in 1969 as the production car on which Alpine’s rally machinery would be based. Its 1565cc engine breathes through a pair of big sidedraft Webers and develops around 138bhp, which doesn’t sound a great deal for a car that’s so clearly focused on speed. But with only a featherweight 650kg to propel, it’s enough for sparkling performance, delivered with a gruff growl as the four-pot motor in the tail hits 6000rpm. If only the gearchange were more of an ally, wear in the linkage rendering it imprecise. The bottom two gears in the five-speed all-synchromesh gearbox, their gate closest to the driver in this left-hand drive car, need particular care to avoid wrong-slotting.
The handsome, leather-wrapped steering wheel is perfectly positioned, and the Alpine’s competition heritage shows up in its very direct gearing. On the open road, corners rarely seem to need more than a few degrees of lock, and when the tail starts to go its own way it’s easy to correct with no more than a flick of the wrists. And the rear end really can have a mind of its own, thanks to the momentum of that engine hung out the back. Best not to lift off mid-corner but to keep the throttle pinned as much as possible, an approach the A110 simply revels in.
Much of the Alpine’s suspension is shared with Renaults, and the same applies to the engine, so parts supply is hardly problematic. The gearbox, however, was bespoke to the car and
‘Its 138bhp is delivered with a gruff growl as the four-pot in the tail hits 6000rpm’
costs £7000 to replace, though there are ways to fit a Renault ’box with an adaptor for about half that. The seats are also unique to the car and rare to find in serviceable condition now. Many cars have been modified for competition and have vague provenance so finding a clean, unmolested example can be a challenge.
Just over 7000 A110s were built in Dieppe, with perhaps another 5000 cars licence-built in Spain, Bulgaria, Brazil and Mexico. French-built cars are more fancied, and values of good road cars in original condition have hovered around the £100,000 mark for several years. Cars with a competition history can sell for a lot more – an ex-ove Andersson/jean Todt works rally A110 sold at auction for nearly €370,000 in 2019.
A110 production ended in 1977 and Alpine moved on to the larger-engined A310, GTA and A610. It was 40 years before the arrival of a new-era A110, derived from a short-lived joint venture with Caterham, whose counterpart never materialised. With allaluminium construction, a mid-mounted 1.8-litre turbo four, wellexecuted throwback styling and highly praised road manners it was a fitting reboot of the Alpine brand for the 21st century.