ALPINE A110

This was the lightweight sports car we’d all been hoping for

ALPINE’S A110 SAYS MORE ABOUT THE PERIOD IN which it arrived and the state of the performance car sector than any other car here (although the GR Yaris runs it close). Its launch came just as the fast car world was getting tired of the horsepower game, embarrassed by the obesity of new cars and wondering exactly when and where a two-metre-wide, 700bhp supercar could be enjoyed on the public road.

Enter the diminutive French sports car. As with our other future icons, how it drives and how this reflects on its potential iconic status can be taken as read. It drives exactly how you’d hope a compact, lightweight, expertly set-up, mid-engined, rear-drive sports car would drive. Simple in its execution, sublime in its actions and offering an equal mix of challenge and reward regardless of the driver’s skill-set.

What makes the A110 tomorrow’s sports car icon is what it stands for and the appeal this has to such a wide audience. Like the GR Yaris, it breaks down barriers, removes any stigma and snobbery from the conversation and allows those who cherish cars designed and developed to put the driver plum in the centre of the action to enjoy and savour every moment.

Its retro design makes you smile on approach. Its cabin doesn’t overplay its credentials. Its soundtrack is a little parpy and lacking in culture, but it doesn’t matter because the A110 is, above all else, a first-50-metre car. That is, during those first two dozen or so rotations of both axles you can feel and sense everything that’s right about the car. Delicate steering, a suppleness to its reactions, an immediacy to its controls. You just know it’s special.

You wear an A110 rather than drive it. It’s the 21st Century equivalent to the Series 1 Lotus Elise. And, like the diminutive roadster that will soon end production at Hethel, the A110 is a goto car whenever you require a refresh as to how a sports car should drive. It will remain so for generations to come: already a tonic for the modern world, it will always be there to provide the answer when you need a reset and recalibration for what a top driver’s car should be.

It is these credentials that assure it of iconic status. Those fortunate to own one today will find every excuse they can not to move it on, whatever work, financial and household pressures might be applied. Those unable to realise ownership today will be prepared to bide their time until their name appears on the V5 of their own A110. Long after production ends, and sadly that will happen soon as Alpine embarks on its allelectric model plan, it will still be in demand by those requiring a near-perfect sports car fix.

And while production numbers are not the be-all and end-all of determining iconic status in these pages, that today’s A110 will be the only Alpine of its type in the modern era is sure to help maintain its status as a true icon way beyond the lifespan of any electrically powered replacement.

‘IT’S THE 21ST CENTURY EQUIVALENT TO THE SERIES 1 ELISE’