The Alpine is very agile and light footed. Very willing to turn in and stable and confident inspiring around the twisties. Its chassis engineers did a great job of setting up a suspension that is perfectly balanced. Luckily the Alpine does not attempt to be a race car in disguise: Ride and handling suits your everyday milk runs as well as a trip to the mountains with their less than perfect road surfaces. I can imagine that she will also cope well on the Nordschleife. For a more track oriented ride, Alpine has the A110 S on offer.
From the ride and handling experience the Alpine is nimble like the Elise and, thanks to more than double engine output, you don’t feel the few additional kilos she has gained over the Elise.
In the twisties and hairpins I realized that I missed the open top very much. Because of the coupé body I noticed that it was much harder to monitor the (absent) oncoming traffic in the hairpins. Also the more direct impressions of the nature around was mute by the presence of the roof. You just don’t feel, smell and see as much. But this is of course true of all tin tops.
Oh and then we must not forget about the Marmite question regarding the gearbox.
This specific car didn’t come with the “race” setting, but with normal and sport. Normal is perfectly suited to everyday driving with comfort and economy on your mind. Sport adds some quicker responses and it does attempt to support you: On a downhill section, when you slow down for a hairpin, the box will throw in downshifts for compression braking.
However this “I know what you need now” type of assistance can be annoying too. More than once I pulled the paddle to shift down at the same time the Alpine did. Which resulted in two downshifts. In all fairness though, once you find the “fully manual” setting on the box, it will do exactly what you want. It will only shift when you ask it to, even while bouncing off the limiter. I don’t think the double clutch only availability of the Alpine can be used to make a buy or don’t buy decision. If you understand how to work the box, the only thing you may be missing is the third pedal and the stick.
What about the interior of the Alpine A110?
In the cabin you miss storage and stowage options, just like in the Elise. As an Elise owner you will of course come up with recipes to overcome this. The Elise’s rear trunk is bigger than the Alpine’s. But then ten Alpine has the front trunk which fits two cabin trolleys. So you have one “unheated luggage” option.
The presence of today’s creature comforts options is welcome: Wonderful and lightweight Sabelt seats, Air condition, which is a must for a coupé of such small interior volume. And of course music and phone connectivity, as you would expect on a 21st century car. This all doesn’t come at the cost of silly weight. Alpine managed to pack all this into 1098 kg’s. Another thing that stuck out as brilliant is the LED lighting. In the night on a deserted road the light is just amazing.
