- Alpine says its A110 R Ultime can lap the 12.9-mile Nurburgring track in 7 minutes 15 seconds.
- The Ultime is 20 seconds faster than a regular R but still 6 seconds slower than a GT4 RS.
- Big aero and power hike boosts track speed but the price is a supercar-like $290k.
When Alpine pulled the covers back on the A110 R Ultime last fall the number that jumped out to us was the crazy €265k ($290k) MSRP that can inflate to €330k ($360k) if you’re a sucker for fancy paint. But now we’ve got another two numbers to fixate on, and they’re the 7 minute 15 second time the Ultime set around Germany’s Nurburgring, and the 20 seconds it beats the regular R by.
hat figure, however, isn’t official, as Alpine didn’t bother providing a full lap time. Instead, it’s an estimate based on Alpine’s claim that the Ultime is 20 seconds faster than the A110 R, paired with the 7:35 lap time recorded by the German magazine Sport Auto for the regular model.
For the price we expected Alpine to deliver something a bit special on the performance front, but even so, we’re impressed by how much the Ultime has improved on the R’s Ring stats. Unfortunately for Alpine’s credibility, seeing as it wants to be France’s answer to Porsche, the Ultime is still around 6 seconds slower than the €159,000 ($164,200) Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 RS, which recorded 7:09.3, and then 7:03.121 with the optional $53,946 Manthey kit for the full 20.832 km Nurburgring lap.
Related: Alpine Claims Electric A110 Will Be Lighter Than ICE Rivals
It’s also worth noting that Alpine hasn’t clarified whether its lap time was recorded on the full 20.832 km layout or the shorter 20.6 km version of the ‘Ring. If it was the latter, the Porsche’s advantage grows even further, since it lapped the shorter course in 7:04.511, making it 11 seconds quicker than the Ultime.
So what exactly has Alpine done to the €105k ($108k) A110 R to make the Alpine so much faster, and so much more expensive? Fundamentally, it’s the same car, and still features a 2.0-liter turbocharged, four-cylinder engine.
But a bigger turbo lifts power from 297 hp (300 PS) to 340 hp (345 PS) and adds 59 lb-ft (80 Nm) for a total of 310 lb-ft (420 Nm) of torque, though only on 102-octane fuel. That’s a lot less punch than the 493 hp (500 PS) the GT4 RS delivers, so kudos to the Ultime for getting fairly close to the GT4 RS at the Ring.
A revised six-speed paddle-shift ’box distributes that extra muscle and helps bring the zero to 62 mph (100 kmh) down from 3.9 seconds to 3.8 seconds. It’s helped in that mission by greater use of carbon fiber on the body that must drop the curb weight below 2,425 lbs (1,100 kg), though Alpine has yet to reveal the true figure.
What really helped the Ultime translate its superior power to weight ratio into such a great performance at the 12.9-mile (20.8 km) Nurburgring, however, is the uprated chassis and aero package. AP racing brakes, Ohlins TTX dampers, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires and a rear wing generating 353 lbs (160 kg) of downforce help explain its pace. Alpine is only building 110 examples, including 30 La Bleue versions featuring special graduated blue paint.
Are you impressed by how fast the Alpine is considering its relatively low power output, or disappointed that it’s still slower than the GT4 RS that costs tens of thousands less? Drop a comment below and let us know.
