Doug Drives: The Alpine A110

Sometime around the turn of the 17th century, some French people sat down for lunch and decided that it would be a très bon idea for them to build a small, light sports car.

Once they'd designed a steel chassis and clothed it in a rather pretty fibreglass body, they then sat down for a bit more lunch, this time with some of their friends from Renault, and struck up a deal to buy some of the engines that were being used in the not at all interesting Renault 8 for their own car which they christened the Alpine A110.

Perhaps a little surprisingly considering its humdrum engine, the A110 went on to become a rather successful car on the rally scene. In fact, Alpine were so good that Renault decided to buy the whole operation and in 1973 an A110 won the first ever World Rally Championship.

After the A110 had been and gone, Renault-Alpine, as they were now known gave us the A310. This was a fantastic looking car, the sort of thing that James Bond would have driven if he was an agent for the French milk marketing board. If that wasn't enough to sway you, it also had the V6 engine from a Volvo 760. Lovely.

By the early 1990's they were making the A610. Pretty much the closest any French car maker has come to building a supercar, the turbocharged A610 was said to be very good, or would have been if anybody had bothered to buy one. But nobody did, and when the last one rolled out of the Dieppe factory in 1995 it seemed that the Alpine name was dead.

New A110 takes both its name and styling cues from the WRC-winning original.

New A110 takes both its name and styling cues from the WRC-winning original.

But a few years ago we started to hear murmurs about a possible revival. We were told Renault had signed a joint venture with Caterham. However, this came to a swift end when officials in Paris discovered that the British firm would only allow one hour of each working day for lunch.

So, they decided to go it alone. They beavered away for a few more years and then, at the 2017 Geneva motor show, Renault took the wraps of their all new Alpine, the imaginatively-titled A110.

I remember thinking when I saw the car for the first time in Switzerland that I wasn't quite sure if the their efforts to ape the design of the original had been entirely successful. You know when you draw something and then your four-year-old son tries to copy it in crayon? The new Alpine seemed a bit like that.

But when I saw the new car parked up outside my office the other day, it did start to win me over. I still wouldn't go as far as to say that the new Alpine is as pretty as the old one, but it is very striking and totally different from any other car on sale. You wouldn't mistake it for anything else.

Interior is a great place to be. Feels special and high quality.

Interior is a great place to be. Feels special and high quality.

When you pop the aluminium door open you get your first impression of the lightness that goes on to define much of the Alpine experience. The whole car weighs in at just 1100 kg, a Lotus Elise is lighter, just, but an Elise doesn't have a twin-clutch gearbox or sat-nav or bluetooth.

The cabin is great actually. It manages to somehow convey the featherweight mantra of the Alpine but still imbue a sense of occasion. The digital dashboard is one of the best I've seen and the swoopy Ferrari-esque central bridge that houses the gear selector and big red start button helps you to ignore the few bits that have been pinched from an old Laguna.

Something else that has been donated by Renault is the 1.8 litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine. You'll also find it sitting in the front of the new hot Megane. In the Alpine it's in the middle, but once I started driving the car I started to worry that the little engine had accidentally somehow gotten lodged in my ear.

The Alpine is way louder than I had expected. Because of it's 155 mph top speed, and its £52,000 price tag I had been expecting it to be quiet and civilised. A bit like a Porsche Cayman with Clio door mirrors, but it isn't like that at all. What it is, for the most part, is fantastic.

Yes, it's vocal. But it sounds tremendously rorty when you start to get on it, and because they've given it short, snappy gearing you can rev the engine right the way through the range without ending up on a speed awareness course, or in a tree.

I'm still not sure about the back though.

I'm still not sure about the back though.

Thanks to said lightweight construction, the Alpine feels zingy and urgent. It feels like the car we all so desperately wanted the Alfa Romeo 4C to be a few years ago.

The steering is razor sharp, a Cayman bests it for outright feel, but the Alpine is the more playful character when you pile into a bend with the full force of 248 chevaux right behind you. It's the best steering of any French car since the Peugeot 106 GTi and that is by no means a joke.

Negatives? Well the brakes are good, but I found the pedal on the car I drove was a little 'ow you say, sudden. If you want to access the engine, you'll need a full main dealer toolkit on hand to remove the stupid engine cover. And whilst the exhaust makes a good noise, the engine itself could stand to be a little more charismatic. It very much feels like a hatchback engine that happens to be in a mid-engined sports car. The five-pot lump in the Audi TT RS would blow it into the weeds for sheer excitement alone.

That's the other thing. At £52k the A110 is competing squarely with some of the biggest names in the business. It's a ballsy move for a brand that most people either won't remember or have never even heard of.

But somehow, this car feels as though it can command that price tag. It really does feel very special to drive. It's more personable than a Cayman, much more usable than a Lotus and far more well-resolved than a 4C.

That only leaves the Audi. But they really are chalk and rich, creamy French cheese. I'd probably go for the TT RS, that magnificent engine is impossible to deny. But you may choose the Alpine for its wonderfully left-field charm and incredible sense of involvement. And you know what? We'd both be winners.

THE ALPINE A110.

Engine: 1798cc Petrol, 4 cylinders, Turbocharged. Transmission: 7-Speed Dual Clutch. Power: 248 BHP. Torque: 236 lbs/ft. Driven wheels: Rear Wheel Drive. 0-62 MPH: 4.5 secs. Top Speed: 155 MPH Economy: 46.3 MPG Combined. Price: £51,805 (Premiere Edition)