Reviving a Rally Legend

The name A110 belonged first to a tiny, rear-engined French coupe that humiliated far larger rivals across European rally stages, culminating in the inaugural World Rally Championship manufacturers’ title in 1973. Renault let the Alpine brand fade into dormancy for decades afterward, reviving it only in 2017 with a modern reinterpretation built around the same idea: strip weight out rather than pile power in.

The standard A110 arrived first, praised almost universally for its ride and balance but occasionally criticized for feeling underpowered next to rivals like the Porsche Cayman. Alpine’s answer, launched in 2019 and continued largely unchanged into the 2022 model year, was the A110 S: a firmer, more powerful variant built for buyers who wanted the same lightweight formula with sharper reflexes.

The Lightweight Formula, Turned Up

The A110 S keeps the standard car’s bonded and riveted all-aluminum chassis, a construction method that let Alpine avoid the weight penalty most turbocharged sports coupes carry. The 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder, borrowed from the wider Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi parts bin, receives a larger turbocharger and revised mapping in S form to push output well past the standard car’s.

• Power Output: 300 PS (296 hp) at 6,400 rpm
• Torque: 340 Nm (251 lb-ft) from 2,400-6,000 rpm
• 0-100 km/h: 4.2 seconds
• Top Speed: 275 km/h (171 mph)

Stiffer Springs, Sharper Reflexes

Beyond the extra power, the S gets springs roughly 50 percent stiffer than the standard A110, along with retuned dampers, a 4 mm lower ride height, and wider Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. Alpine also fits standard S cars with a mechanical limited-slip differential emulation through the stability control, sharpening corner exits without adding the weight of a physical differential.

Brakes grew too, with larger discs pinched by red-painted calipers that also serve as one of the easiest visual cues distinguishing an S from a standard A110 in a parking lot. None of the changes touch the fundamental mid-engine layout, which keeps the four-cylinder turbo mounted just behind the two seats for the same low polar moment of inertia that defined the original 1960s car.

At a kerb weight of just 1,114 kg, with 56 percent of that mass sitting behind the driver over the rear axle, the S still weighs hundreds of kilograms less than most turbocharged coupes in its price range.

How It Stacks Up Against the Establishment

Road testers consistently pitted the A110 S against Porsche’s 718 Cayman S, and just as consistently came away preferring the Alpine’s steering feel and ride compliance, even if the Porsche’s flat-four had a raspier soundtrack and higher outright grip. Several outlets went further, naming the A110 S among their favorite driver’s cars of the year despite conceding that it trailed rivals on paper in both power and outright lap times.

Living With the S

Despite the firmer setup, the A110 S never abandons the everyday usability that made the standard car popular. The cabin, trimmed with lightweight Sabelt seats and a driver-focused digital cluster, is snug but not punishing, and the light weight that makes the car quick also keeps the ride from feeling brutal over broken pavement, a trade-off many stiffer sports coupes never manage as gracefully.

Luggage space is split between a small front trunk and a slightly larger rear compartment behind the engine, enough for a couple of soft bags but nothing approaching what a Cayman’s dual trunks can swallow. It is a car built around the driving experience first, and everything else second.

Where the S Sits in Alpine’s Lineup Today

By 2022, the S sat as the performance flagship beneath even sportier limited variants Alpine would later introduce, and above the softer-riding Pure and GT trims aimed at buyers who wanted the A110 look without the firmer suspension. It represented the version most enthusiasts pointed to as the A110 range’s sweet spot between comfort and outright focus.

Alpine has continued to expand the lineup since, with hotter track-focused variants and, eventually, an all-electric future for the brand, but the 2022 A110 S remains one of the last pure combustion expressions of the formula Renault revived in 2017: light weight over brute force, feel over horsepower figures.