THE NEW ALPINE A110 PURE. Short new car review.

The Alpine A110 is a sports car that I have been looking forward to putting through its paces for many years.

The version I drove is the entry-model Pure with the Atelier Alpine Customisation programme upgrade.

This allows you to choose from a selection of 22 body colours, different alloy wheels and coloured brake callipers.

Each body colour is limited to 110 cars worldwide and this car is number 2.

You could say that the Alpine A110 is for the purist of car drivers out there and to a certain degree you would be right. Two seater, mid-engine, light-weight aluminium body and overall neat dimensions are a great recipe for a car like this.

The first thing I noticed (while dropping myself into the driver’s seat) was how visually appealing the lightweight Sabelt bucket sport seats are…but not only do they each weigh 13.1 kg they look stunning and supported me in all the right places.

One of the biggest surprises to me is even though I felt as if my derrière was just above the tarmac, visibility out of the windscreen and side windows was extremely good. Ok, looking over my left shoulder through the rear window isn’t the best for visibility ..but lets be fair when it comes to parking it does have a reversing parking camera. So no issues with reverse parking. My rear vision (using the rear-view mirror) was perfectly fine too.

Natural light just floods into the cabin.

I was pleased to find creature comforts from climate control to satellite navigation. I love the look of the switches under the infotainment screen.

A110 can happily totter around at 30 mph, but when I stepped on the accelerator pedal it just took off!

The speed didn’t just impress me, it also has a pretty impressive engine and exhaust “sound track”. There is the glorious sound of forced induction as I could hear the rush of air being sucked into the engine. I could hear the turbo waste gate whistling and chirping away as I lifted off the accelerator pedal or between gear changes. It is quite thrilling!

This car transforms at speed and instilled a driving confidence in me within a matter of a few minutes. It felt as if I had been driving this car for months not minutes. That is a rare feeling!

The 7-speed dual-clutch auto box was a joy to use. The gear selector paddles are located just behind the steering wheel which allowed me to quickly change up or down the gearbox. It even had me changing up and down through the gearbox for the sheer joy of it.

I couldn’t help but throw it into a few corners at speed to really get the feel and benefits of it being mid-engine and light in weight.

It flows through the corners with such confidence and the supple suspension makes good work of our West Country bumpy roads.

The steering is quite light at slow speeds but weights up perfectly with a linear feeling at high speeds. Scrubbing off speed isn’t a problem with the 4-pot Brembo brakes which are sharp but not “grabby”.

It was my first drive of an Alpine car but I got the sense of Alpine’s motor racing and rallying heritage DNA running through this car.

Here’s the thing …If you are looking for an agile two-seater, mid-engine sports car that is all about driving enjoyment and you want to be an individual? I recommend add one to your list of mid-engine sports cars to test drive. Alpine are never going to be flooding the market with these cars and if you do choose to own an A110, you will always have the sense that you are driving something very special.

This car left me with the thoughts of Pure by model name and “pure” by (its driving) nature!

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