Alpine A110S

As I collected the car yesterday decided to start a new thread on it as this is hopefully going to be a long-term keeper.

Impulse purchase and has replaced a much loved 650 convertible a low mileage daily driver.

Had just come into stock at Alpine Solihull when I was there to test drive a 3 year old A110S, saw this, crunched some numbers and bought.

Only real must have for me was the standard Sabelt bucket seats and not Alpine Blue, gorgeous colour but my Tuscan is Viper Blue and very similar.

Decent amount of extra equipment on it, premium Focal audio, mirror pack, orange seatbelts, storage pack (obscenely expensive), black inlay on headlights, front parking sensors and rear view camera and Alpine mats.

Very easy purchase process and collection yesterday was pretty painless.

Went straight down to Salon Prive after collecting then home through the Cotswolds via a stop at the Alpine facility in Enstone for a photo.

Few things to be added to it, the Life110 paddle shifters, carbon exhaust finisher and the Life110 springs, titanium track rod ends and geometry being done later this month.

First impressions are that it will be a lot of fun and will complement the Tuscan and Vantage pretty well.

Good check over of the car on Saturday and pretty impressed with the prep, just a couple of tiny spots of transport wax but other than that was pretty much perfect, even tyre pressures were correct - a first on a new car for me

As its a long term keeper, Saturday and Sunday saw me ceramic coating the hubs, calipers, wheels, wheel arch liners and paint then moving on to the interior with protection of alcantara, plastics and leather.



Changed over the standard paddle shifters for Life110 items and they are much more tactile and usable



Was surprised to see how good the access to the engine is once you remove the three knurled knobs in the boot and release the multiple quick release fasteners on the engine cover itself



Also trial fitted the Bagworld luggage set I had made

The S only sits 2mm lower than the base car. Milne will be sitting 11mm than in the pics come next Thursday after its had its Life110 springs fitted, these are actually 5% softer than the standard S springs

Great to watch someone who is clearly a perfectionist at work.

Alpine down to Spires Technologies today for Eibach / Life110 springs and Life110 titanium tie rod ends to be fitted and fast road geometry setup with full alignment.

The car felt great to drive before, now its astonishing, the stiction around dead ahead has gone and the brittleness to the ride on poor surfaces has completely gone - complete transformation.

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As this car is intended to be a long-term keeper I thought I'd up the standard protection on the car, might make no difference to it whatsoever but it can hardly have a negative impact.

My go-to anti-corrosion product is Bilt Hamber Dynax UC so a few tins bought and off to work.

Arch liners to come off, very straightforward, a fair number of push fixings that stayed in one piece on removal (I have a big stock of spare fastenings anyway) and a number of screw fixings (only two sizes) within the arch and underside and with a bit of pushing and pulling the front liner popped out, its two pieces with a join at the top.





Arch liner cleaned up and ceramic coated (again not really necessary but cannot do any harm and then a liberal spraying of the Dynax UC. I used the lance attachment which does not give it as even a finish as the normal spray head but more easily controllable and 95% of the area covered was going to be behind the liner anyway.

Nice opportunity to clean everything up (despite only 800 miles #on the odo and have a good poke around at the engineering on show, flat underside is pretty impressive and the diffuser starts long way forward so probably not just for show.

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Always slightly nervous when removing stuff like this that I will be able to get it back ok - fortunately everything went back with no problem whatsoever, and even better, no fixings went missing or were left over.

Nearside rear was simply a repeat of nearside front but with fewer fixings and a single piece liner, just got the offside to do in the coming week.

Thanks, it's certainly a car that's living up to expectations.

I doubt I will chase more power, its as quick as the Tuscan and Vantage we have and at 300 bhp it's already at the limits of what the gearbox can deal with (or so I have heard)

Engine / gearbox not been stretched, more like reconfigured. Was not chasing / wanting more power as a priority, more a tweak to power / torque delivery

Yesterday allowed me to drive the A110S on roads that it is probably best suited to - mixture of sweeping roads with great sight lines to narrower country roads with tight low speed corners and short straights, being North Wales there was also the rain to factor in to things.

I had organised an 85 mile round trip with other A110 owners into North Wales stopping at the Ponderosa, the cafe on the side of Lake Bala and taking in the Horseshoe Pass, B4401, B4391 and B4396.

Roads were pretty quiet and really allowed the car to be stretched - it did not disappoint, the firmness of the A110S (lessened a little in my car due to having Eibach springs fitted), disappeared, replaced by superb body control and directness, the lack of weight and remapped TCU allowed the car to really punch down the straights but it was the corners that really showed how good this little car is. It was driven hard and did not falter once.

The question I can get asked most often is "Why did you not just buy a Porsche" - yesterdays drive vindicated my decision, I doubt I'd have had any more fun in any comparable Porsche and getting back on to home ground, refuelling and discovering it had done 34mpg was the icing on the cake.

If you are in the market for a Porsche or an Emira then you overlook an A110 at your peril, its o good both the Tuscan and Vantage have been sold.

Evo Corse wheels fitted today, may get them done in bronze, will see how I feel in a few weeks but make a nice change to the standard S wheels



Nicely integrated Vmount wireless phone charger installed





And devised a solution to a potential long term issue of seatbelt rubbing against the seats



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It is obviously a grey area - I accept that the engine / gearbox element of Alpine warranty will be void on most components and that the provider of the remap would do the right thing - on the basis that I do not stress the car, do a low mileage, the remaps are hardly extreme and that the engine / box are not known for giving trouble that it was a risk worth taking

Its just part of the Fourdot number plate - its a short (but legal) plate and the black helps to break up what would otherwise be a chunk of white bodywork - just personal taste on my part