Anyone driven a McLaren and the Alpine A110

[jcuthell]

Hi,

I was hoping to get a photo of my A110 Premiere edition and the Senna Hatfield had for their launch night (similar to the Auto Car comparison) but its already gone. Has anyone driven both a McLaren and an Alpine and got any thoughts on a comparison? Is a used McLaren a logical step-up from an Alpine?

Thanks

[Crazy4557]

I've recently driven an Alpine at Goodwood, a couple of short'sh test drives on the road and a visit to the factory just 3 weeks ago. I also own a 570S so have some recent experience of both.
The Alpine idea was to replace an Alfa 4C but in comparison to that car it felt a bit too refined, the 4C is such an event on every drive that nothing short of a proper grown up supercar comes close.
The Alpine has great steering, turn in, handling but can be a bit rolly into the bends on track until settled. Feels a very nimble light car, which it is and a lovely car to drive but it's not very special, it does everything almost too well.
The cabin is well built but not especially high quality but then it's Renault backed so pretty much what is expected. Biggest let down is the 4 pot turbo sound but that's not the fault of the car.

A McLaren is a different car altogether, it feels heavier, the steering's meatier, the noise for a turbo V8 is fabulous, it's quite a bit wider and it is 3 x the the price so the feel of quality inside and out is way above. Less of a B road blast than the Alpine but for Euro trips it's supremely comfortable, quiet but poke it with a stick and it really comes alive and will catch out the less experienced with it's huge performance which is night and day superior to the Alpine, in fact the Alpine wouldn't see where it had gone on a good road, less so on a back road.

I really like the Alpine and it's an easy car to live with but a McLaren is far far superior especially for my needs but many may well feel the Alpine being lighter to be the opposite.

[fridaypassion]

Alpine will be better when they brig the cup version out. Too soft. Steering is EPAS so not much feel. Gearbox could do with tweaking. Decent car though but not the Elise replacement it's been touted as. Nicely put together. Not worth 50k.