Renault’s Alpine A110 sports car debuts

About 27 years after sitting dormant, the French sports-car manufacturer Alpine (nowadays owned by Renault) made a comeback at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show by revealing the all-new Alpine A110 sportscar. Aimed squarely at the Porsche Cayman, the Alfa Romeo 4C and maybe the Nissan 370Z, the A110 hopes to be a combination of old-school driving thrill and modern motoring, with a dash of retro.

The Alpine A110 adopts a curvaceous look, using the original A110 from the 60’s and 70’s as its design inspiration. The swept back headlights and the round headlights give a retro flavor to the modern, low-slung front end. The deeply raked windscreen aids aerodynamics. Moving to the rear, the smooth design is highlighted by the detailed LED tail lamps. The diffuser houses a centrally-mounted exhaust tip.

Tipping the scales to 1080 kg, the Alpine A110 is a light car. To add to this featherweight, the A110 is powered by 252 hp produced by the 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine which is hooked up to a 7-speed dual clutch transmission. Sorry purists, but there is no manual option. The engine churns out 320 Nm of torque. This power the car from 0 to 100 kph in 4.5 seconds and onwards to a top speed of 249 kph.

The Alpine A110 is re-introduced to the world with a Premiere edition which will be limited to just 1955 units. It adds 18-inch forged aluminum wheels with a matte black finish, Focal stereo, leather-upholstered Sabelt one-piece seats. The left-hand drive examples of the Premiere edition meant for sale in Europe are all sold out. The Alpine A110 will be arriving in some parts of Europe by 2017 and in UK and Japan by 2018.

Alpine’s plans for the GCC market is not clear as of now.