Alpine A110 R Review: Both The Best And The Worst A110
The R is the hardest, lightest version yet of the brilliant Alpine A110 â does turning it into a stripped-out road racer rob it of its character?
The modern-day Alpine A110 has always been a bit like one of those indie albums thatâs massively popular with critics and geeks on music forums but often overlooked by the mainstream. While things like the A290 and the F1 team are efforts to make Alpine a bit more Top 40, the A110 is the car worldâs âLovelessâ or âIn the Aeroplane Over the Seaâ.
And if the A110âs a critically adored alternative album, then the A110 R is the hypothetical unplugged version. Itâs the lightest, most stripped-back version yet of a car whose USP is already its lightness and stripped-backness.
Other A110s strike a balance between weight-saving and usability; this one pursues the former at the cost of the latter. It has padded one-piece carbon bucket seats with six-point harnesses. It gets more aggressive aero and carbon fibre wheels. It has no rear windscreen at all, and the entire rear hatch has been replaced with a carbon cover. Itâs unashamedly track-focused.
Alpine A110 R – wheel detail
This risks compromising what makes lesser A110s so good. Their light touch makes them brilliantly entertaining and usable on broken B-roads, but theyâre equally amenable to nipping to the shops or sitting on a motorway. Does the R treatment spoil these talents?
The R shares its 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder â pinched from the old Renaultsport Megane â with the rest of the range. Here, itâs in 296bhp, 251lb ft guise, and remains hooked exclusively to a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Because itâs so light, and because it has seven gears and a little four-pot engine, a quoted 41.5mpg isnât a total pipe dream if youâre driving steadily. But you wonât be.
Alpine A110 R – interior
The liberal dosing of carbon fibre (in addition to the stuff outlined above, the bonnetâs made from it too) contributes to a 34kg saving over the A110 S. Thatâs significant when starting with a base car thatâs already so lithe, and brings kerbweight down to 1082kg.Â
The results of all this are 62mph in 3.9 seconds, and a top speed of 177mph, bringing the Alpineâs baby supercar vibes ever closer to the real deal.
The A110âs never been about raw numbers, though. Handlingâs always been its thing, and in this department, the R is sensational. The springs have been stiffened by 10 per cent, and anti-roll bars by 10 per cent up front and 25 per cent out back. It sits 10mm lower than standard and can be manually dropped by a further 10mm.
Alpine A110 R – rear, driving
These tweaks give it a noticeable cornering edge. The R stays unwaveringly flat through bends, and you can lean on enormous reserves of grip. It has an incredibly keen nose, and while thereâs a hint of understeer dialled into the chassis, a mid-corner lift can bring the inherent mid-engined balance into play, tightening things up with a shimmy thatâs exciting but never threatening.
The steering is an electronically assisted setup. It doesnât chatter away relentlessly, but never once leaves you wanting more feedback. Itâs perfectly weighted too, with just enough delicacy to play up the Râs lightness without it ever feeling like youâre not involved in the process.
Itâs a massively enjoyable, confidence-inspiring thing to go hunt corners in, something amplified by the brilliant brakes. Its lightness means it doesnât need enormous carbon-ceramic stoppers â it makes do with 320mm vented steel discs at both ends, which provide plenty of stopping power via a reassuringly firm pedal.
Alpine A110 R – rear detail
The one aspect of the A110 thatâs never inspired quite the same reverence as the rest of the car is the powertrain. While most of its small pool of rivals still offer six cylinders and three pedals, the Alpine makes do with a turbo four and a dual-clutch gearbox.
Itâs always been a good setup, and remains so here: its raspy tone and juvenile pop-pops are perfectly enjoyable, and itâs in keeping with the A110âs lightweight ethos. For the ÂŁ94,990 being asked for the R, though, a powertrain that errs more towards function than emotion might be a harder sell.
Alpine A110 R – front, driving
The dual-clutch gearbox, though, is excellent â extremely responsive and slick in its shifts, with a slight but reassuring upshift jolt when youâre pushing on. There will always be those who deride the A110 for not offering a manual, but the lack of a clutch pedal really doesnât detract that much from the experience.
Inside, the R isnât too different from other A110s beyond the racy seats and lack of a rear-view mirror (there is a backup camera). It still has all the toys you could really want in a car like this â cruise control, air conditioning, and a dinky seven-inch screen. That houses a fairly naff infotainment system that youâll immediately ignore and use CarPlay instead.
Some of the materials here donât befit a ÂŁ95k car, but the bits that are integral to the drive â the perfectly sized, Alcantara-covered steering wheel, the aluminium shift paddles â have been carefully considered.
Alpine A110 R – interior
All of this makes the A110 R genuinely usable as a road car. There are compromises: the restrictive harnesses and lack of rear screen make pulling out of parallel parking spaces or oblique junctions rather nerve-wracking. Thereâs a lot of tyre roar over poor surfaces, its racy suspension setup means it gets fidgety through ruts, and the harnessâs buckle will dig into your unmentionables after a while.
But the seats are well-padded and comfy, and the engineâs unobtrusive at a cruise. The ride, although noticeably firmer than standard, never gets truly crashy. The R even retains both of the A110âs modest luggage compartments.
The thing is, though, every other version of the A110 is a truly superb road car. Theyâre 95 per cent as fun to drive and donât require you to strap yourself into something that looks like it belongs in a backstreet establishment in Amsterdam or cross your fingers every time you pull out into traffic.
Alpine A110 R – rear, driving
That leaves the R as something to consider mainly as a track toy and freed from the bounds of traffic laws, the emotional shortcomings of its powertrain might turn a few more people off.
Make no mistake, itâs still a superbly entertaining road car, and Iâm glad beyond belief that it exists. Maybe, to drag out that tortured analogy from the beginning, itâs more like a live album. Itâs raw, authentic and exciting, but unless youâre there, in the moment, itâs not quite as polished as the full studio version. As a result, itâs really for the most die-hard fans of the band.