Alpine A110

Hi there !

I’ve had my MX-5 ND for nearly a year now and have been looking at some other lightweight sportscars.

I tried a Lotus Elise Cup 250 in May, the drive was very fun and it’s plenty quick. But as I can only have one car due to limited parking space, I was a bit doubtful about the daily-ability of the Elise.

Enter the Alpine A110. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it earlier but seeing one on the highway in June made me want to try one because it really looks great.

Since I’m in France it’s pretty easy to try one so I got to do it last week.

Pic of the car :

• Design and interior :

It really is a beautiful little car, the car is compact but manage to look plenty muscular. The front fascia is a clear tribute to the old A110 and the rear is gorgeous. The Alpine Blue color makes the lines shine.

Interior is pretty nice, not on Cayman-level but it does the job with a sweet looking steering wheel. Some journalists called it McLaren-like, never got into one but I can say it looks good, sporty and premium. Plenty of chrome, aluminium, leather and real carbon fiber.

Looks way nicer than my Miata’s interior and you can’t even compare with the Lotus since it’s as welcoming as a dry and icy piece of wood. Better than the Mustang of course and looks sportier but slightly less premium than the F-Type’s interior. I’m only comparing it to cars I actually got into and drove.

The digital cockpit looks pretty neat even though I usually prefer analog tachometers in sportscars. I didn’t get to use the infotainment on the central screen or the audio system.

Like in the Miata, interior space is very limited but I’m used to it so not a big deal in my case.

Interior pic (not mine) :

• Drive :

Getting in is easy, a good point against the comical spectacle of crawling into a Lotus. Everything comes naturally like in the Miata and you feel at home in a matter of minutes. Rear visbility is poor but you see the essential. The seats look amazing and are both supportive and comfy.

In Normal mode it’s a very smooth and docile car. The dual-clutch auto is smart and easy, steering is there but not too weighty and the engine goes without drama.

I put it in Sport Mode and it becomes sharper with the heavier steering and faster throttle response. Turbo lag is basically unnoticeable most of the time and the auto transmission does a good job of letting gears go higher in rpm’s and shifting faster than in Normal. The optional Sport Exhaust comes alive and it really growls nicely for a turbo-four. Better than most other turbo-four apart from some Abarths maybe.

Steering feel is still better on the Lotus Elise but no surprise there with the unassisted steering.

I came accross some curvy roads and the power is clearly there. 252hp for 2.430lbs (1.110kg) is pretty quick. 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) is 4.5s and the figure is believable when driving the car. Max torque is 320Nm (236 ft-lb) at only 2.000rpm so you can pass other cars in any gear quickly. Redline is at 6.800rpm from what I’ve read, I wished for a bit more but it would have been mostly pointless with a monoscroll turbo configuration anyway.

Suspension is superb, the Alpine glides on the road doesn’t matter how bad the pavement is. But it doesn’t rob you from feeling what’s happening under the front tires either. The low weight makes it plenty agile in curves and you generally feel connected to the road like in my Miata. Lotus is better on road-feel though. The mid-engine architecture shines here with very good agility and composure.

It’s pretty quiet for a car this light too, I’d have no problem driving hours on the highway. The car has a small trunk for flexible bags and a frunk that can host two small cabin baggages apparently.

I liked the admission and turbo noises a lot too, I think the car actually sounds better with windows closed for that reason. I did miss not being able to drop the top like in my Miata.

• Price :

At 57.000€ ($67K) base price it’s really competitive. The Lotus Elise Sport 220 is around the same but isn’t nearly as polyvalent and useable. It’s better for pure driving fun though. The Cayman is at 60k€ base, is heavier, slower on 0-62mph and needs pricey options to get equivalent equipment. Mustang GT is nearly 70k€ here sadly. New Supra 4-cylinder is interesting though at 54k€, but way heavier and more GT-oriented.

Ecological malus is « only » 1.100€ for the Alpine too so way lower than most competitors.

And I like the fact that it’s French sportscar built in France. It’s a bit silly but it makes me proud and it’s a proper sportscar, not a Peugeot GTI nor a Renault RS.

I’m not sure it’s sold in the US so don’t hesitate if you have any questions ! I liked the car a lot and I’m currently making plans to sell my ND Miata and order a new Alpine by next summer (if I don’t fall in love with another car in between...). I still want to try the 4-pot Supra just out of curiosity.

Every review I've read about it, the a110 got perfect or near perfect scores. Does the a110 really live up to the hype,? I've seen a car being so highly praised like this one.

Figured it could interest a few people since I don't seem to come across a lot of other Alpine owners on here ! I did 9.500km in those 18-months.

Pics for starters :

I had a ND Miata before the Alpine, in 6-speed manual and 1.5L 132hp trim. I test-drove a Lotus Elise Cup 250 before trying and ordering the Alpine. I didn't wan't anything heavier than those cars for several reasons : road fun, emissions tax (heavy sportcars have big engines usually), fuel consumption...

I help my dad with his car/bike reviews website so I also got the occasion to try a lot of cars : F-Type, Mustang, RS5, Bentley Continental GT etc. That's why I know I don't like heavy cars much too.

A few words on the car for those unfamiliar with it along with details about my particular spec :

- Alpine A110 in "Pure" spec from 2021. So 252hp via the 1.8L turbo in-line four, engine is mid-mounted. The S felt like the wrong choice for a daily since it's stiffer and I couldn't feel the additional power very much when I tried both. It was also too expensive for me at the time anyway.

Engine is mated to a 7-speed dual-clutch Getrag gearbox. 0-62mph is 4.5s. The car weighs 1.100kg, and those aren't Italian tax-free kilos lol, looking at you Alfa 4C. The Alpine has been weighted several times at exactly the quoted weight. Double wishbone all-around, 96% aluminum construction.

- I took the following options :

• 18'' Serac wheels - 800€ --> Should have take the lighter Fuchs wheels in hindsight but the Serac do look good.

• 320mm big brakes with aluminum bells - 1.000€

• Sport exhaust with active valves - 1.500€

• Rear sensors - 420€

• Lightweight Focal audio system - 600€

• Ceramic coating - 1.000€

• Blanc Glacier paint - 0€ --> wanted to keep max budget for the interesting options, and didn't want to pay 1.800€ for Alpine Blue since more than 8 out of 10 Alpines are blue. Plus I dig the white it makes the car looks pure like the name of the spec :D

• A few cosmetic bits like blue logo on the steering wheel, logos on the wings, blue brake callipers...

OOTD price was 64.000€. Base price 57.000 at the time, 5.000 or in options and 2.000 in registration, emissions tax and dealer fees.

Alpine doesn’t let you haggle the price down, they only gift a few small options at most. It stings when you buy but as a result the A110 doesn’t lose a lot of value on the second hand market since the new guys can’t get a new cheap one, putting pressure on used ones.

Will break down this "review" into three sections, according to the different use cases I get into with this car :

1 - As a daily

Let's start with the standard stuff. The A110 is my one and only car so I think I can talk about the daily stuff pretty good.

I'm married without kids so we can make this work as a unique car alright. I take public transportation to go to work (live and work near Paris) so I also didn't need an economic car for boring miles.

The Alpine still sees some boring stuff like taking the highway to go buy cat food, 5-hr drives to go on vacation or going to doctors' appointments.

This may be the "boring" part but it's actually the part that makes me like the Alpine a lot because it's very livable. You don't think twice before taking her out because the damping is so smooth that you can take speed bumps at 35/40kph and ride for 5 hours in the buckets seats without getting sore.

It's very civilized for standard driving, the EDC 7-speed dual-clutch is smooth and quick, engine isn't thirsty (all-time average at 26mpg-9l/100km and can get as low as 34mpg-7l/100 on highway drives. Sound insulation is pretty good for a light sportcar, you can enjoy music at 130km/h-80mph or have a conversation at normal volume, unlike my previous Miata or the Lotus Elise I tried.

Driving position feels good to me, plenty of adjustment even though the bucket seats only go forward/backward.

You get some modern goodies like speed regulator/limiter and bluetooth audio into the awesome Focal speakers (they sound way better than the Bose audio in my previous ND Miata) but it's a pretty barebones car on that front by 2022 standards. I only specced the rear sensors since I don't drive that much and have a large parking spot at home. You can opt for front sensors and rear camera too for some peace of mind but it's not like it's a huge and very low vehicle so pretty easy to handle.

Cargo space is low at 196 liters, 100 in the frunk and 96 in the weird bean-shaped trunk. So it's not the right car to move a labrador or go hiking for 3 weeks I guess. Still enough to go away for 10 days like we did recently in Switzerland but yeah you have to pack smart.

Two cons as a daily :

- Infotainment is pretty bad, the screen is slow and pretty low-res, the GPS is antique and voice-control feels useless. I only use my iPhone on a dashboard mount for navigation and music so not a big deal but still a flaw. You couldn't get CarPlay back when I ordered but the new infotainment software handles it now.

- Interior storage is abysmal, you can slot your wallet and maybe a garage remote in the central console but that's about it. No glove box, nothing in the door panels, nothing.

The best part of the boring drives is actually seeing how much people like the car, you get thumbs up and smiles and dudes snapping their necks and little boys going "woooow" as you drive by. But without looking like a wealthy snob flexing in his 718 GTS either, it has a really good image here in France since the brand is historic and people know that if you choose an Alpine is because you like to drive a fun French sportcar.Cops are even cool with it because the A110 is the new car for the highway patrol so they recognize it even more since a few months.

2 - As a weekend sportcar

So, on with the hot stuff.

I think the Alpine is at its best when you take her for a drive on deserted backroads, even better if they're mountain roads. The more corners the more fun, this car is begging for turns. The clear highlight is the chassis, it's playful but very potent, you feel everything happening under your butt while the car brakes on corner entry, rotates mid-corner, and wiggle a bit on corner exit with some throttle.

It's a lot like the Elise on that regard, you also get the same damping plushness. The Alpine loves bad pavement, she rides over it with a magic carped ride it's pretty shocking. It means you can attack hard without worrying about the road condition, you can go faster than a lot of other sport cars just thanks to the confidence the chassis is giving you on backroads corners.

I did a rally day this spring and I had a lot of fun passing Porsches and Jaguar on small roads. Some guys were complaning about the organisation’s road choices since they were indeed pretty rough roads, but the A110 didn’t mind at all compared to the bigger cars.

Key word with this car would be "fun", you just cannot not love driving this thing on backroads if you like cars, it's very communicative and playful but you still get a lot of grip so it's not dangerous. The low weight helps a lot with the speed sensations, you can brake late, throttle early and get to lose-your-license-territory speeds in a few seconds between corners.It moves around though, the nose dives on braking, the body rolls in corners and the nose lifts on exit. I like that because the car is telling you everything, but if you prefer stiff German cars it can be unsettling.

You just have to trust the car and listen to what she tells. Some people install bigger anti-roll bars and shorter/stiffer springs to stiffen the chassis. But I think the stock chassis is what makes this car special and so much loved on our old European and UK roads. The S is often judged as less fun of a road car because of its stiffer, more standard chassis.

Brake feel is awesome, as I like to say the brake feel is as good as Lotus steering feel. It's not a lot assisted so you get to really push the pedal and I never knew you could get so much feedback from a brake pedal.

Steering feel is light at first glance but loads up quite nicely when pressing on. It's not Lotus good but it's pretty decent for a modern electric rack. I guess the Emira will manage to still be better with her hydraulic rack.

The Sabelt bucket seats hold you in place very nicely for sporty road use too. The Michelin PS4 DT1 tires are very good for road-use, plenty of grip, handle wet roads without any fuss, and I think they'll last me 20.000km or so, even with some light trackday use.

The exhaust growls and pops quite nicely without being overdone. Really sounds alright for a modern turbo-four with particulate filter.

You also get a lot of fun turbo sounds too, induction noise, wastegate going "PSHHHH" and all that. Video :

So it's about 90% as fun as a Lotus Elise on the right road, while being a lot better with the boring daily stuff thanks to the sound insulation, modern interior and turbo engine.

And no problem about the gearbox for me, with the kind of speed it gets you I'm pretty glad I can focus on the steering/braking stuff. The gearbox is very quick in sport/track mode. I think I'd keep the auto even if a manual was possible (it's not and likely will never be). It just suits the car really well. I’d still pick a Miata or a Mustang with a manual for instance, but the dual-cluctch auto was the right choice for the Alpine.

3 - As a track toy

I'm still not an expert about trackdays but I did two of them in the Alpine so far so can write on the subject somewhat.

A video I took at my first trackday :

I never tried trackdays before buying the A110 and now I love it. I feel like the Alpine is a good car to start with and grow thanks the communicative chassis. Since it tells you a lot you can progress easily while understanding your inputs and the following car reactions.

I feared the car would be only good for road use because of the soft chassis setup but after my track time I now appreciate its potential.

The mid-engine gets you a lot of grip on corner exit, along with the low weight you can go fast around corners once you know the track a bit. You can pass a lot of more powerful cars (see my video for instance) with your cornering speeds, that's the low weight magic.

The "soft" chassis setup is actually helping with mechanical grip since the braking dive-in/throttle lift-up and cornering body rolls put more weight on the currently solicited tires.

The engine pushes quite nicely for its small size, and the brakes endure the heat with ease in my experience, they're pretty big for the Alpine's weight so in 15mn sessions I never get them to overheat. Granted I'm far from pushing the car in its limits so maybe in a few years when I get a lot more track time I will see those limits.

I didn't get any trouble with engine overheating or what-not.

The Track mode is very fun since you get to handle the gears yourself while enjoying a light ESC (can also disconnect it totally).

I preferred the car on technical circuits since it loves corners. I tried a faster circuit and it felt a bit uneasy on some high-speed sweeping corners. That's when I understood the people installing some stiffer stuff.

I don't want to go there for now since I like to grow with the stock communicative setup, but eventually I think I'll go for bigger ARBs and stiffer springs if I want to go more seriously into trackdays.

So it's also a fun car to bring on track, it's not as good as the 991 GT3 I tried but it's also way less serious. Any beginner will have a lot of fun it while learning the ropes, and the experienced with the right mods will find themselves with some proper weapon. I know some guys chasing 991 GT3 times with a few mods like semi-slicks, better brakes, Ohlins suspension...

Conclusion :

I guess it's pretty clear that I like the car very much. I'm planning on keeping it for the foreseeable future.

The Alpine is capable of doing almost everything I need it to, it's very polyvalent so it's perfect for me since I only have one parking spot. It looks good to me, sporty but not tacky and elegant without being bling.

I don't want to get into even more expensive cars for several reasons : don't want to daily (I have only one parking sport so any car will be my ONLY car) a 100.000 or more car, even though I can afford it now.

Don't want to have a heavier sportcar, don't want to pay the government 40.000€ in emissions tax if I buy a big engine new (911, Mustang, F-Type V8 and everything like those cars is hit with enormous emissions taxes here).

So in short the only other car I would get would be a new Alpine, for now at least. A "R" spec is rumored with 320hp and 50kg lighter. I'll keep an eye on it if it ever sees the light but I also don't want to pay a huge premium for a little less weight and some more power I won't be able to use on the road.

The other alternative is just keeping this one and buying mods once the warranty expires. I'm already pretty much set on buying the OEM carbon roof and Fuchs light wheels ().
I'm also asking them about the Aero Pack availability since I'd like to purchase the carbon bits you can spec on a new S now : front splitter and rear wing ().
Next would be ARBs and stiffer springs. Remap if I get bored but unsure, I'd like to keep the car for very long and it doesn't really "lack" power imo.

It's a shame they didn't get to sell it in the US. The 4C is not sold anymore and you guys never got the Elise S3 so it could have been a nice niche choice. I think it lacks some safety stuff or something, can't recall why it's not sold here. Or maybe it's just because Renault (mother company) isn't in the US at all.

It's a pretty unique little car and I'm glad I get to enjoy it while it's still possible. Unique in a lot of ways : preaching a light-weight mantra in this HP-driven competition while not being a totally uncomfortable tracktoy like some hardcore Lotus and Caterham, and being a modern sportcar capable of 30mpg while we're told that we won't be able to buy any new ICE in Europe by 2035.

Also it's a French sportcar made in France, we don't get a lot of those lol.

Well I hope you enjoyed, thanks for coming to my TED talk, hope you get to try one of these beauties someday !

Hello there,

After around five months of waiting, I finally got to pick up my realistic dream car today. Living in France, I took interest in the A110 before the summer while looking for a replacement to my 1.5L ND Miata.

Prior to that , while being a fantastic driver's car, I feared that it was going to be too much of a hassle running it as a daily. I might I've went for it if I weren't married but the Lotus-as-a-daily life i is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be...unnatural.

A few weeks after the Lotus . To keep it short, it felt almost as fun as the Lotus on curvy roads while being infinitely more polyvalent and civilized.

I really didn't plan on buying one when going for the test-drive, but it took me by surprise. It really feels like a leveled-up Miata if that makes sense. Same lightness/nimbless feel but in a stiffer chassis, same compliant suspension but more sophisticated with less roll and better road-filtration, same light steering.

Of course performance is in another league to me, twice the HP of while weighing less than 100kg (220 pounds) over the Miata. 0-62mph in 4.5s is almost twice faster than the quoted figure for my ND too. It weighs 1.099kg (2422 pounds) so clearly a lightweight. This weight was confirmed by several auto magazines so it's not some marketing "low weight" gimmick !
On the engine side it's pretty different too, 1.8L turbo for the A110 versus 1.5L atmo for the ND. And dual-clutch seven-speed versus the trusty manual-6 of the Mazda.

Anyhow I ordered one in Pure finition, (only free paint option, I wanted to keep most budged for performance options), , upgraded 320mm brakes, sport exhaust, Focal audio system and some minor cosmetic things like fender logos, blue calipers, aluminium pedals and passenger footrests among other things.
The and are very comfy too. I got it with Gtechniq products by a reputable detailer to keep it clean and glossy for a long time.

Really glad about my configuration now that I have it here, I understand it's not a car that will be to everyone's liking styling-wise but I like the understated sporty look.
Some more pictures : , , , , , ,

It's new so I didn't gave it the beans but the ride home was a fun one. Mainly because people love this thing in France, like for real. I got thumbs up from bikers, other dudes in regular cars, people passing by giving it a good hard look while crossing the street.
It took the heavy rain from today and Paris' traffic like a real champ too. And I can see the appeal of an auto transmission in heavy traffic now.

It's getting quite long so I'll stop there but I wanted to share my excitement over my new sports car. It's my only car and will be used as a daily. I traded in the ND to help finance it, I wish I could keep both but I had to make a choice.
I'm glad I bought this kind of car while it's still possible in Europe and look forward to enjoying it for as long as I can.