In 2017, towards the end of the year, the Alpine A110 brought a gasp of fresh air to the sports car market, and this lightweight French sports coupé scoops a prize at this year's Britain's Best Car Awards.
While the majority of sports cars fidget, shuffle and bounce down a bad road, the A110 glides. It does something that no small sports car has allowed itself to do for a generation: move on its suspension, to prove once again that driving enjoyment doesn’t have to mean rock-hard springing.
The car is light, just 1103kg, the entry-level A110 sits on a bespoke aluminium architecture that’s barely over 4.1m long and less than 1.8m wide. Given there are double wishbones all-round, despite the A110 having only two seats, it’s an impressive bit of packaging. The fuel tank squeezes between the front suspension and the engine and gearbox, taken wholesale from elsewhere in the Renault range, sit neatly behind the occupants.
It has just the right amount of power, too. It’s a road car first and foremost, so 249bhp and the kind of acceleration that comes with that are enjoyable without being antisocial; usable without being utterly illegal within a few seconds.
The A110 is also a rather nice track car, incredibly happy to rotate on turn-in and slide around a little.
Responses
