Alpine A110 SportsX – sports car gets rally-style mod

From what we hear, the Alpine A110 is a great sports car, one that’s loved by critics. But what next for the reborn brand? Unfortunately, sports cars are niche products in today’s landscape and Alpine is a sports car brand. Here’s a possibility.

Alpine is using the International Automobile Festival of the Invalides in Paris to show off new or little-known models to the public: the A210 prototype, the Alpine Vision Gran Turismo, the A110 1800 – 1972 Gp4 driven by François Alessandri and Jean Pierre Manzagol, the A110 SportsX, an A110 “berlinette” 1300 of 1971 and the A110S.

We focus on the Alpine A110 SportsX. Based on the standard A110 that debut in 2017, the SportsX is the result of a joint effort by Alpine’s design and engineering teams. The styling exercise is inspired by the rally versions of the A110 – enlarged and raised – and more specifically from the winning A110 of the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally.

With its 80 mm wider body and ground clearance raised by 60 mm, the A110 SportsX explores “a new facet of sportiness”. Its creators say that the A110 SportsX remains faithful to Alpine’s DNA, which is lightness and agility for driving pleasure.

The base car is the entry A110 Pure, so under the hood is a turbocharged 1.8 litre four-cylinder engine with 252 PS and 320 Nm of torque. Without the rally-style mods, the Pure does 0-100 km/h in just 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 250 km/h, which makes you wonder why not many go down this lightness for performance route. Released in June last year, the range-topping A110S brings power to 292 PS, shaving a tenth off the 0-100 km/h time.

Alpine makes it a point to say that the A110 SportsX is not for sale, but who’s to say that such a derivative won’t appear in the future – if the Renault-owned brand has to diversify, this is a mild start.

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