In just a few years, Renault has managed to come up with a proper rival to the likes of the Porsche Cayman 718 and Alfa Romeo 4C. It’s called the A110 and is the first product of the resurrected Alpine brand.
Instead of taking the chassis from the latest Megane RS lineup and tweak it, the French company built the sports car from scratch. Thus, it’s their only mid-engine, rear-wheel drive product currently on sale.
So far, the A110 has won universal praise due to its driving dynamics. Alpine promises an even better experience with the A110S, the new, more hardcore variant of the compact sports coupe.
Watch: BMW M2 Competition Vs. Alpine A110: Different Worlds Clash For The Title Of Best Sports Car
Introduced a few months ago, the A110S boasts a reworked suspension, sits a tad lower than the regular Pure and Legende models and sports Brembo brakes. Alpine decided against striping the cabin of the usual amenities, so overall the S is a bit heavier, but the 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) has been improved by 0.1 seconds, to 4.4, and top speed has increased from 250 to 260 km/h (155-162 mph).
That’s because the French engineers tuned the 1.8-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder, squeezing an extra 40 PS (39 hp / 29 kW) out of it. Thus, its output now sits at 292 PS (288 hp / 215 kW) and 320 Nm (236 lb-ft) of torque.
But what good is to read about what it can do over and over again, if you cannot experience it? Well, as it happens, a video shot from inside the car at the Estoril track in Portugal, during the official media launch, shows just how fun the A110S is.