Sports car manufacturers love creating lighter, more extreme special editions and charging for the privilege. Porsche and Lotus have been doing it for years, and now Alpine wants to do the same with the A110.
Alpine is a lesser-known firm, which was revived in 2018 as Renault’s sporty arm, and has gained quite a reputation for its light and agile A110. There have been numerous versions of this sports car that have led to the A110 R – the lightest, most aggressive and track-focused Alpine yet.
The R uses the A110 S as its base, adopting that car’s more powerful engine, and then has looked to shed weight. The standard car is hardly heavy, but thanks to a range of measures, Alpine’s managed to shave 34kg from it, while still retaining pleasant niceties like a touchscreen and climate control.
Some of the stand-out differences you’ll notice are its mismatched carbon wheels, which look different at the rear to the front – a proper racing car trait – as well as the bonnet and rear window section being replaced by carbon fibre. There are also manually adjustable coilovers, though as per factory settings, the A110 R sits lower and is stiffer than the standard car.