James Taylor
THE Renault 5 already has a hot sister, the Alpine A290 – and we’ve now tried a development version of the car at the brand’s base in the frozen north of Sweden.
While the two cars are closely related, Alpine’s performance version is being worked on separately. It has its own design of front suspension, wider dimensions, more power, different brakes and unique driving modes, among other distinctions.
The final, production-spec Alpine A290 will be revealed to the world in June, and the first deliveries are expected by October.
We’re driving two different prototypes on the frozen lake that Alpine uses to develop the car’s powertrain, braking, low-grip handling and stability safety systems.
Although the cars are camouflaged, it’s possible to make out the A290’s shape and its features, with a chunky, wheel-at-each-corner stance – just as with the 5.
While the dashboard is clad with black fabric to disguise its final design, the car’s steering wheel is fully exposed. It has two key additions for the Alpine, both inspired by the steering wheel in its F1 cars: an ‘OV’ (for ‘Overtake’) button, which gives an extra shot of power from the motor, and a switch to adjust the amount of regenerative braking.
As with the Renault R5, the A290 production car is a single-motor, front-wheel-drive car, albeit with a different, more powerful motor. It uses torque vectoring by braking to help put its power down to the ice.
With the drive mode set to Normal, it’s remarkable how stable and controlled the A290 is, no matter how clumsy you are with the pedals or steering. In Sport, it allows a certain amount of sliding, but remains very safe and controlled. In true sports-car style, it is possible to fully disable the stability-control system, and let the A290 slide to the point where you’re looking at out of the side windows rather than the windscreen.
Alpine has worked hard to make the A290 feel easy and intuitive to drive, and its steering, braking and accelerator maps are all designed to feel very similar to those of the A110 sports car. Vice-president of engineering Robert Bonetto says the team has deliberately avoided the shock and awe of a very sensitive accelerator pedal.
Instead the throttle response, while certainly smart, places more emphasis on being smooth and progressive. If drivers do want dramatic acceleration, that’s where the
