Alpine A110S
HELLO
£60,645 OTR/£71,689 as tested/£749 pcm
WHY IT’S HERE
Does the concept of a lightweight dissolve on contact with Real Life?
DRIVER
Ollie Kew
THE ALPINE A110 STILL FEELS LIKE A NEW CAR TO ME. PARTLY BECAUSE you still have to explain it everywhere you go “No Alpina does BMWs No this isn’t a BMW Yes it is owned by Renault It’s not actually a Renault Apart from the engine And the gearbox And most of the interior fittings ”
But the A isn’t new so far as the car industry is concerned Launched to monumental acclaim in it’s now mired in the midlife noman’s land of sports car life arcs Special editions painted zany colours keep popping up Sales are not exactly booming just about topping a year
Alpine has just refreshed the model lineup and added much needed Apple and Android phone pairing to the dire internal touchscreen And at last we’re able to live with one for a few months We’ve gone for the A S because it’s the version we’ve been least convinced by so far Alpine conceived the A as a lessismore exercise low in weight power and grip then set about rejecting all those concepts for the S It ups the litre Megane RS engine’s power from bhp to bhp It’s secs quicker mph but it doesn’t feel jour et nuit faster It also wears wider stickier tyres and spring rates are a massive per cent firmer Antiroll bars are per cent stiffer And it’s a whopping mm lower The S is also kg heavier
This A S is fully loaded with alloys wrapped in Michelin Cup tyres a speaker upgrade a paintjob and some suspiciously
Porscheesque mickey taking like a storage pack a piece of netting and a pouch between the seats and another for folding antiglare door mirrors The resulting price of over k puts this car firmly in new Lotus Emira V and Porsche Cayman GTS territory cars which were outshone by the regular k A in our group test verdict in TG But that was a halcyon day and this is the daily grind Where the Alpine lies in our affections in six months’ time will be fascinating to discover