HELLO ALPINE A110 + GOODBYE DACIA JOGGER & PORSCHE TAYCAN
How unusual, and how welcome: a pure, traditional sports car.
Hello
Alpine A110 Month 1
With its updated tech and an extended model range, we aim to make the most of the Alpine A110 while it lasts
+ Compact, lightweight and great looking, the A110 remains a real head-turner
-Small interior and minimal luggage space will make it a challenge to live with
Price £54,490 (£59,515 as tested) Performance 1790cc turbo four-cylinder, 249bhp, 4.5sec 0-62mph, 155mph Efficiency 40.3mpg (official), 27.8mpg (tested), 130g/km CO2 Energy cost 23.2p per mile Miles this month 662 Total miles 1452
It’s seven years since Renault resurrected the Alpine brand with the A110 and this car still feels joyously peculiar and unlikely. As the rest of the automotive herd migrates towards battery-driven SUVs, the reborn Alpine brand swerved left in 2017, with a compact, aluminium, two-seater sports coupe, with rear-wheel drive and a mid-mounted engine.
What a statement! What a car! What a relief, that someone still believes in this kind of thing.
Well – for a while, anyway. Alpine has already revealed its electric future, and the next A110 – due in 2025 – will of course be battery powered. Sad but inevitable I guess.
But for now, this ultra-light, rear-drive, petrol-engined car lives on, and this year Alpine has given the A110 a refresh, offering anew RTurini version on top of the existing GT, S and R models, and updating equipment levels and the onboard tech. This, then, is our last chance to use an A110 for a few precious weeks and find out what it’s like to live with, before this little jewel is lost.
The example that joins the CAR fleet is the standard Alpine, which means 249bhp from a 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine and a £54,490 on-the-road price. It’s the cheapest of the A110 range (the GT starts at £65k, the hardcore R version at £97k) but nothing about it says ‘base spec’, especially as our car has a few optional extras added.
Finished in a dark Abyss Blue paint (£840) and with the standard 18-inch dark grey diamond-cut Serac wheels it looks sensational when you meet it parked on the side of the road, the pointy nose and curvaceous arches making it look as slippery as a wet bar of soap.
It’s also tiny – it looks more like Mazda MX-5 scale than Porsche Cayman, another reason it stands out in a world where a Mini is the size of a Range Rover and a Range Rover is the size of a bus.
Climb in (through an aluminium door so light you suspect it’s made of cardboard when you swing it open) and the interior is also pocket-sized. It’s perfectly comfortable, with the one-piece sports seats and small, thick-rimmed steering
