The new R version of the Alpine A110 is lighter than the base car thanks to the black elements – carbon fibre, including the bonnet
In 2017 Alpine launched a new small sports car and it changed the world. Or at least it should have done. For those few lucky hacks who drove it at the time, we thought we were witnessing a new dawn for such cars: gone would be the days of outsize, overweight, profligate sports cars, replaced by a new generation of small, lightweight and efficient machines that, as a result, were simply brilliant both to own and live with. It seemed so right, so obvious that the Alpine A110 would be a complete game-changer and reverse a direction of travel after far too long, it is possible we might have overlooked a thing or two. Like hardly anyone knew what an Alpine was, and even fewer cared. Fewer still were stoked by the idea of a 1.8-litre, four-cylinder powertrain out of a Renault Megane; and pretty though it was, it was just too petite to make a proper ‘get out of my way’ statement. Ever since and despite it being far and away the best usable sports car that kind of money can buy, sales have been slow.
And it’s hard to see this one making much difference to that, though at least the profit margin on each should be considerably more healthy for reasons we’ll be getting to in a minute.