2024 Alpine A110 R Ultime 1.8L 7AT RWD (345 HP)

Vehicle Overview

Alpine unleashed the fastest and most powerful vehicle in its history at the 2024 Paris Motor Show, a car that defied the electrification trend in an era when most other supercars were helped to reach their goals by electric motors.

Alpine was born as a sports car manufacturer in the mid-50s and has maintained close ties with Renault throughout its existence. Unfortunately, hard financial times forced the small shop to give up and sell its assets to the French automaker, who couldn’t keep it afloat. However, in 2017, the once-famous brand Alpine was resurrected as a separate brand within the Renault Group and launched the lightweight A110. Despite having a small turbocharged inline-four engine, it could sit at the same table as other sports car manufacturers. Its secret was in plain sight: lightweight, mid-engined, and rear-wheel drive. The A110 had all the assets it needed to beat some more expensive and more polished brands around a track. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Other versions followed. In 2024, at the Paris Motor Show, the French sports car specialist revealed the A110 R Ultime as the pinnacle of the A110 lineup. The Ultime (the last) was the final chapter of the A110 R lineup, but not the end of the road for Alpine cars.

One of the most charismatic parts of the 2024 Alpine A110 R Ultime parts was its front. The car resembled the first A110. Its tear-shaped, swept-back headlights had round daytime running lights resembling the headlamps of its 1963 ancestor. Furthermore, a set of round LEDs surrounded the fog lamps mounted on the car’s nose, which echoed those from the rally car that won the inaugural manufacturers’ World Rally Championship in 1973. The lower side of the bumper revealed a redesigned apron featuring a trapezoidal-shaped air intake. A pair of side scoops enhanced by winglets that increased downforce.

From its profile, the mid-engined coupe boasted its carbon fiber side sills that played a crucial role in the vehicle’s aerodynamics. The 2024 Alpine A110 R Ultime had a front carbon fiber hood that could be left unpainted or sporting the body color. Like the rest of its stablemates, it featured air intakes on the sides that fed the engine with fresh air. The car ran on 18-inch forged alloy wheels at the front and 19-inch ones at the rear, with a ten-spoke design. At the back, like its A110 R Turini sibling, the Ultime version had no rear window since a thin sheet of carbon fiber was lighter than a glass panel. Behind that, the French car manufacturer placed a massive carbon fiber wing that contributed to the car’s downforce, which was increased compared with its previous limited edition version by 160 kilos (353 lbs.).

The Alpine A110 R Ultime was built in 110 units, and customers could personalize their vehicles. Besides the 27 exterior colors available for the bodywork, the cabin could be tailor-made. With a choice of nine Alcantara colors and ten leather options, the car exceeded the expectations of most customers. However, it had the same digital instrument panel and touchscreen infotainment system as the rest of the range. In addition, the car manufacturer added a unique plaque at the bottom of the center stack that showed the unit’s number.

But no sports car could be completed without a special engine. Alpine’s engineering team burned the midnight oil to boost the vehicle’s performance. Besides making the vehicle lighter, they reworked the 1.8-liter turbocharged inline-four powerhouse and made it provide 345 PS (340 hp). All the oomph was sent to the rear wheels via a new automatic, dual-clutch gearbox. As a result, the 2024 Alpine A110 R Ultime could rocket from naught to 100 kph (0-62 mph) in just 3.8 seconds.