2022 Alpine A110 review

The most minor facelift or not, I was never going to let this occasion pass. I’ve been closer to the A110 than any other car – I drove prototypes long before their press launches, got to know a number of key Alpine people (including former chief engineer David Twohig, now of this parish) and tested more A110s for various magazines and websites than I care to remember. I also have one of my own, though if you don’t mind, I prefer not to talk about it.

I think I know exactly what to expect as I drive through the gates at Whiteways Technical Centre in Oxfordshire, known to all as the Enstone Formula 1 team, formerly home to the Benetton, Renault and Lotus F1 squads but now the seat of Alpine’s F1 campaign. The instant I pull up alongside the ranks of new A110s in my car, though, I realise it’s become old news. I wonder if it’s no longer the one to have.

Alpine has been busy rationalising its model range, so there are now three distinct variants – the most basic A110, the A110 S with more power and firmer suspension (nothing new so far, although the old Pure and Legende designations have been dropped), then the new A110 GT that combines the softer chassis setup with the more potent engine, rather like the limited edition Legende GT from last time out. The new line-up is clearer, simpler and easier to understand.

There really is new badging to differentiate one model from another, while there’s no bigger news within the cabin than the standard fitment across the board of CarPlay and Android Auto, replacing the lamentable phone mirroring system used by pre-facelift A110s (it’s so poor I’ve simply never bothered with it).

I spot a new menu layout for the central infotainment screen, which isn’t so labyrinthine now, plus very subtly revised graphics for the digital display in the instrument binnacle. On paper the A110 GT looks to be the pick of the bunch, combining as it does the more dextrous chassis setup that works so brilliantly on UK roads (and is the single biggest reason the A110 was received so enthusiastically by the press) with the more powerful, 296bhp engine (up fractionally from 288bhp), which now has an extra 15lb ft of torque compared to the base motor.

I start with this one, reasoning that if any new A110 is going to make mine look off the pace, the GT would be it – and I’d far rather know right away. The grand tourer among Alpines, the GT comes with six-way adjustable comfort seats rather than the fixed-back Sabelt buckets that will only be adjusted for height if you drag out your toolkit. These chairs are more practical given they’ll accommodate a greater range of body shapes and sizes, but I happen to prefer the closer embrace of the Sabelts.

For the most part the new GT just feels like an Alpine, still with that fluid and pliant way of finding its way along a road, still leaning hard onto its outer springs in corners, its body rising over crests and squatting down in compressions like before. Where the less powerful, 249bhp version of this 1.8-litre turbo four-pot begins to run out of puff at higher rpm, this one continues to pull hard to the redline. Does it feel significantly quicker than my car? Not really, and only by driving the two back to back are you made at all aware of the 47bhp difference.

But what’s this? Along this straight, busy stretch of road I’m being bounced lightly this way and that, the wheel in my hands fidgeting gently up and down. Driven with some commitment this GT still feels like the lissom, fleet-footed Alpine I know so well, but there is a new tension in the ride in normal driving, a constant patter that wasn’t there before.

A little bemused, but quite certain I wouldn’t trade my car for this one even if I could, I try the A110 S for size. In Fire Orange, with the jutting carbon fibre front splitter and the prominent rear wing, plus the no-nonsense tread pattern of the track-ready Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, the A110 has never looked more steroidal than it does here.

But this Alpine isn’t some musclebound powerhouse, all grunting effort and short bursts of blunt, brute force. It’s more like a sprinter, darting from point to point, flinging itself along a winding B-road like no corner could ever slow it down. There is the same 296bhp as the GT, but also the far firmer suspension setup – anti-roll bars that are twice as stiff, springs 50 per cent harder and a slight drop in ride height – that gives sharper responses and far greater immediacy.

It zips around like a housefly, moving so quickly your eyes can barely keep up. Much of it is in the relentless grip of those Cup 2 tyres. They bite hard into a warm, dry road, the double wishbone suspension at all four corners that keeps the rubber square to the road allowing it to work even harder still. The Alpine’s basic attributes play their part, too, because the car is light and small, so you pick your way along a road between the hedgerows as if your lane is wider than everybody else’s.

Don’t be fooled by the seemingly modest power output – on the public highway where you can use only so much, this thing is about as fast cross-country as any machine this side of a 600bhp mid-engined supercar. In theory, this is the same engine in the same specification with the same sports exhaust as the GT, but every time I lift off the throttle and hear the pipes spew forth a volley fire of cracks and bangs, it’s quite clear to me that they are not interchangeable at all.

Is the A110 S too stiff for the road? It’s not, but the ride is busy, particularly at low speeds. You do leap around in your seat on poor surfaces and gradually grow tired of the non-stop jiggling in day to day driving, but the suspension isn’t so firm the car is actually kicked off line or dragged across the width of a road over uneven ground. It’s not how I like an Alpine to ride, though.

So no, I wouldn’t change my car for one of these either. In fact, I wouldn’t have an A110 S over any A110 unless I wanted a track day toy. But what a track day toy it would be! It would never trigger a circuit’s noise metre, unlike certain Porsche GT cars, for instance, and it would use far less fuel and be lighter on its tyres and brakes than any track special from Stuttgart or Maranello. Meanwhile, you’d be having as much fun as anybody on circuit, revelling in the Alpine’s precision, stability and balance, all the while leaning hard on that seemingly limitless cornering grip.

The A110 comes these days with a lofty reputation, but it’s one that doesn’t necessarily apply to the far stiffer A110 S. If ever you read or hear about an Alpine’s loose-limbed and fluent ways, know that only the standard chassis cars do it. And yet, all A110s have much the same basic configuration as single-seater or prototype racing cars – lightness as a foundation, inherent balance, double wishbones all round and a paddleshift gearbox.

It means there is so much untapped performance within the A110, so much potential still in reserve. Some independent tuners have begun releasing it, but this A110 S – specifically when optioned up with the sticky tyres and wings – is as far as Alpine itself has so far leaned into the car’s latent ability. Even though this isn’t the A110 for me, I hope Alpine continues to lean in further and further, because there is a very serious machine still waiting to be let out.

So I drive the most basic Alpine last of all, expecting it to feel like coming home. I’m told it’s no different to my own, this test car even doing without the optional sports exhaust, which my car doesn’t have either. But if they are so alike on paper, why does this one feel so much sweeter than mine? It rides like its tyres are made of sponge, like the fluid in the dampers is warmer and less viscous, moving through the valves more freely. It glides along a road, serene and unflustered even over the worst surfaces.

Never before have I known that famous Alpine fluency to be so vividly on display. It traverses uneven ground the way a phantom descends a flight of stone steps. I wouldn’t say its ride is softer than my car’s, but it is both smoother and more quiet. It shrugs off bumps in the road surface like a billionaire swatting away a parking ticket. I suppose it’s only natural that the car has continued to evolve, feeling better now than ever – chassis tuning folk can’t help but tinker.

I wonder, though, why it seems to ride so much better than the A110 GT with which it supposedly shares a chassis. I presume the spring and anti-roll bar rates are the same, but their damper tuning is unique to each model. Similarly, why would the A110 S sound so much more vocal than the GT if they use the same engine calibration? Again, they will be tuned ever so slightly differently to lend each its own character. In theory there are two engines, two chassis and three combinations of them, but in reality, each variant rides and goes in its own unique way.

I think this is how the range should have looked all along. But while the A110 GT appears to sit somewhere in the middle, flaunting the best of both, it actually feels like the one grasping for an identity to call its own – if you want a grand tourer, are you really buying an Alpine? The A110 S has its place, but I don’t want to feel goaded into driving harder and harder on the road. For me, an Alpine should be rewarding to drive at moderate speeds. Far and away the best of the three, therefore, is the simplest, least powerful and most basic of them. The entry-level A110 is spellbinding to drive – better than ever, actually – and still unlike anything else in the sports car segment.

It’s £10,000 cheaper than the others too, meaning less continues to be more in the world of Alpine. And newer? With regret, I have to report that is more as well.

Alpine A110

Engine: 1798cc, 4-cyl, turbo
Transmission: 7-speed dual clutch, RWD
Power: 249bhp @ 6000rpm
Torque: 236lb ft @ 2000-4800rpm
Weight: 1102kg

Power-to-weight ratio: 226bhp/tonne
0-62mph: 4.5 seconds
Top speed: 155mph
Price: £49,905

Ti rating: 10/10

Alpine A110 GT

Engine: 1798cc, 4-cyl, turbo
Transmission: 7-speed dual clutch, RWD
Power: 296bhp @ 6300rpm
Torque: 251lb ft @ 2400-6000rpm
Weight: 1119kg

Power-to-weight ratio: 265bhp/tonne
0-62mph: 4.2 seconds
Top speed: 155mph
Price: £59,355

Ti rating: 9/10

Alpine A110 S

Engine: 1798cc, 4-cyl, turbo
Transmission: 7-speed dual clutch, RWD
Power: 296bhp @ 6300rpm
Torque: 251lb ft @ 2400-6000rpm
Weight: 1119kg

Power-to-weight ratio: 265bhp/tonne
0-62mph: 4.2 seconds
Top speed: 155mph
Price: £59,955

Ti rating: 9/10