Alpine A110 - A Blazing Return Of The French Marque

The arrival of the Alpine A110 sports car marks a blazing return of the French marque

- Robert Stedman

Alpine is a car brand that was established in 1955. Over the next couple of decades the Alpine gained almost legendary status as a builder of quality sports cars. The company’s full name is Société des Automobiles Alpine SAS, but it is better known as Alpine (pronounced “al-peen”). Alpine’s founder was a Normandy car mechanic, Jean Rédélé. Through his car-building activities, Rédélé achieved some success in racing with his modified Renault 4CVs, one of the few French cars available after World War II. In using modified Renaults, Alpine has been closely related to Renault since Alpine’s inception, so it was no surprise that Renault purchased Alpine in 1973. Production of Alpine models stopped in 1995 as the marque went into decline. However, in 2017, Renault resurrected the brand with the introduction of the A110, a race inspired sports car. Singapore received its first Alpine at the beginning of this year.

What’s so special about the A110? On the surface, it’s pretty much a straightforward, back-to-basics two-seater sports car. It’s designed like the Audi TT or the Porsche Cayman. Looks aside, that’s where the similarities end. This sports car is really, really light: The flagship version weighs a scant 1,103kg — 300kg less than its Porsche or Audi rivals.

How did Alpine’s engineers trim so much fat? Easy. The car is built entirely out of lightweight aluminum alloys, with bits of carbon fiber thrown in for good measure. The A110 comes with a modest 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that develops a decent 249bhp. The engine is mounted behind the seats and drives the rear wheels through a seven-speed automatic Getrag electronic double-clutch transmission. The car easily zooms from zero to 100kmh in a respectable 4.5 seconds.