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What? Another new car for Australia? The market may be saturated but it is not new Alpine A110 with open arms.
Alpine – Renault's sporty sub-brand – has delivered an enchanting sports coupe with a drive experience that's both rare and welcome. Unquestionably beautiful in its tiny proportions, the elegant Frenchie is flush with ingredients to seduce driving enthusiasts.
Extensive use of aluminum for the chbadis, body and suspension makes it just 1103kg, making it 360kg lighter than its Porsche 718 Cayman rival, and close in mbad to the Exige Lotus, a car not known for everyday usability.
With mid-rear mounted engine, rear-wheel drive and smart suspension, the two-seater sweetens the deal with retro-styling.
Most will not be familiar with Alpine, the brand that won the 1973 World Rally Championship with its Renault-engined A110, and this modern interpretation blends exquisitely with the design charm of the old with modern flashes.
Cherrypicking cues from its stylish 1960s heritage, the A110 uses twin front headlights, distinctive Alpine spine cap and tiny wraparound rear screen. A completely flat underside and rear diffusing mean that it needs no garish spoiler, which would sully the clean design of the impossibly low rear.
The French can be accused, often and fairly, of putting into practice the driving experience is truly joyous. It's a grin-giver to drive as well as behold.
The launch edition is limited to 60 examples (of which 42 have already sold). Called the Australian Premiere Edition, it's yours for $ 106,500 before on-roads.
Not cheap but plenty of deposits are down. Pure Cheaper and Legend grades (from $ 97,000) are due in March.
The original Alpine A110 was a legend on the snowy Monte Carlo Rally. Having a first road test at a chilly Targa High Country (it was -2C at the Mt Buller start line) in the modern equivalent made perfect sense of the ice scraped from the windows.
From the first few corners, it became clear. It feels fine as it shifts direction rapidly, playfully twitching its back end as the turbo engine feeds the skinny rear tyres.
Renault Sport's 1.8-liter boosted four-cylinder from the Megane RS, retuned to 185kW / 320Nm – but this is enough to launch the slim coupe from rest to 100km / h in 4.5 seconds.
In its favor, its power-to-weight ratio matches that of a Cayman S, it sounds better and better than the German (but you should not forget the fit, finish, luxury and all- round Teutonic brilliance of the Porsche's drive experience).
The Alpine, however, feels more approachable. It's done the sprint and gym training but also taken extra curricular ballet clbades.
It makes you feel as easy as you can, it absorbs the bumps via double-wishbone suspension with coil springs at each end.
Push too hard and there's a bit of body roll; grip can run out on the skinny rubber but it never surprises you.
It's a good communicator through the sharp steering and flatly refuses to scare its driver by doing anything vulgar like flinging the back end out without ample warning.
The engine has decent turbo shove but you need to select Sport or Track mode to give the dual-clutch transmission to hurry on: in Normal mode it's a lazy thing.
These factors also influence the throttle and steering response, add some crackles and pops to the exhaust and loosen stability control tolerances.
The A110 will appeal to a certain type of purist so the absence of a manual gearbox option is a surprise, especially with such a focus on weight saving.
The auto transmission and reasonably compliant ride A110's potential as a daily drive, more than the likes of a Lotus – but you have to tolerate the comically tiny (but anticipate) luggage compartments front and rear.
This being the Premiere Edition, cabin inclusions are not bad. Sporty keys include lightweight leather Sabelt seats, digital dash, satnav, climate control, cruise control, smartphone mirroring and lap timer with telemetry data.
Space is roomy for two but storage is wanting inside. Paddle-shifters are mounted on the column rather than steering wheel, making gear changes tricky in corners.
Some of the switchgear and hard plastics feel a bit too "Renault" at this price, while not much active safety gear and just two airbags and are not ideal.
Most is forgiven on your favorite stretch of mountain pbad.
The Alpine A110 is delightfully niche and delivers old-school lightweight driving thrills so rare these days. Not everyone can afford a slimline Supermodel but the rewards are obvious.
Alpine A110 Australian Premiere Edition
Price: $ 106,500 more on-roads
Safety: Not rated, two airbags
Engine: 1.8-liter 4-cyl turbo, 185kW / 320Nm
Thirst: 6.2L / 100km
0-100km / h: 4.5 secs
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