Alpine A110 makes European Car of the Year finals
On its first go, Alpine has produced a sports car in with a shout of winning the motor industry's biggest award
Dieppe ought to ready itself for Alpine's Christmas party this year because on top of it winning plaudits across the board for the A110, the car is now in with a genuine shot of winning European Car of the Year - the title arguably most coveted by the continent's manufacturers.
If the two-seater were to take the top spot when the judge's decision is announced in March, it'd be the first sports car to do so in forty years. Since the Porsche 928 beat out the BMW 7 Series and Ford Granada in 1978, the competition has consistently nominated models from the mainstream. Only the Toyota GT-86 and Mazda MX-5 have had a look in this decade, and both were beaten out by hatchbacks.
That's a sign of how a good a job Dieppe's 400-employee company has done on its first go at making a new car since being relaunched in 2016. Alright, so it has the might of Renault and its catalogue of parts behind it, but as Alpine's most senior executives have emphasised on numerous occasions, the brand operates independently of its parent.
Certainly the A110's use of a bespoke extruded and bonded aluminium chassis is the physical evidence of the vastly different engineering route. And regardless of where it's getting the bits from, making a four-pot sports car to genuinely rival the Porsche 718 Cayman is no easy feat - just look at the Alfa Romeo 4C.
Facing the A110 in the 2019 competition will be the Citroën C5 Aircross, Ford Focus, Jaguar I-Pace, Kia Ceed, Mercedes-Benz A-Class and Peugeot 508. With due respect to Jaguar for its achievement at bringing the I-Pace to market, it would be no contest from a PH perspective - but the COTY judges are also tasked with evaluating each model's practicality, running costs and the whole ownership proposition.
It is typically by this hard-nosed measure that sports cars invariably do less well (the GT-86 managed second place, but had half the points awarded to the Volkswagen Golf). But we still rate the A110's chances - firstly, because it is so stonkingly good to drive and will therefore likely garner points across the board; and secondly because it is French, and will therefore almost certainly have the unanimous backing of the domestic vote. Either way, Alpine has well earned its mulled wine next month.
Quick search reveals the nationality of the previous winners: 16 French, 14 German, 12 Italian etc... Does that just mean that the French and Italians make more technically innovative cars? Perhaps they just feel they have more of a manufacturing industry to be proud of than we do.
A video below for those who like or own them.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i51zjrL9ZTc&t=...
t.Really don't see the appeal with these.
These cars are super light, pointy, quick and fun at low speeds as well as high. Whats not to like?
The looks. As i had previously mentioned.
t.Really don't see the appeal with these.
It's by reading those articles 'with loads of pictures' that i am able to come to my conclusion that the thing looks s
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