New Alpine A110 owners experiences and photos.

[stephendell]

Definitely some people on their third screen now.

skid pan report.

although I have racing experience am not a drifter. did a wet skid pan session for fun, and to see. To be honest it was a little frustrating!

The other cars were the usual collection of high torque rwds: amg, bmw m, lexus and a camaro zl1 etc.

The “problem” I had was too much rear grip and light weight. Anyone planting it in a c63, on a wet concrete pan, would instantly have a slow motion heavy pendulum. My a110 from low speed when booted even in wet would squat and grip and add speed which would create understeer almost immediately.

Got it to break loose without gaining unwanted speed with a left right flick technique but then 1st gear would run out of revs - and very easy to get a fast pirouette. Not coordinated enough in the five or six 3 minute attempts to find the paddle and change to 2nd where there is more throttle control. Starting in second had a twin issue of yet more grip time when you boot it, and then the dct might go back to first anyway a little later. (track mode esc off).

The coaches were frustrated, at first they did not believe traction/stability control was fully off, and I was frustrated but because corona they were not allowed fo jump in and show me how beautifully it can be held all around a circle or figure 8

It was surely my lack of talent but I will pretend it was the setup (low speed wet pan) is not ideal for finding the edge in a mid engined car with low polar moment of inertia? yeah thats my story.

Interesting. Sometimes a tactical lift or left foot break might get a bit more weight onto the front and off the back. Having turbo boost to manage too won't help either. Practice does make a lot of difference - it was very frustrating been shown how agile my BRZ was by an instructor, but I didn't get anywhere near their ability to hold a slide in it (on the low grip surface at Porsche Silverstone).

Meh...Go Ragnotti or go home

Windscreen replaced under warranty. Assured issue now resolved, unfortunately some early warranty replacements were from the early faulty batches.

My screen split along the top, no sign of any stone chip but they refused to do it under warranty, saying I must have hit a pothole and broken it. They also muttered something about mileage (10,000 plus). The whole experience was very Renault and very poor.

By contrast, the repair through Autoglass was excellent in every way, extremely easy through the insurance.

TK

[stephendell]

I have heard some people having difficulty getting replacement screens if the crack doesn’t start in the bottom right hand corner.

It seems the rads are a magnet for leaves and other debris. Giving mine a clean after a week away, and this was the main rad

The ones at the sides weren't as bad, and at least the vertical orientation of those means stuff tends to stick/fall to the bottom where it's more easily seen.

The wide grille openings mean it's easy enough to get a hoover in and pull it out - worst case you could pop the luggage box out and access from the top. I know some Porsches suffer a similar issue, ultimately leading to rads/condensers needing to be replaced due to corrosion.

How are people doing on rear tyre wear? Mine seem to be disappearing at quite a rate (possibly related to having too much fun ) but I'm wondering if it's worth going to Centre Gravity or similar to have a proper geo done. I know Life110 suggests some alternative settings too.

Mine just had its second year service, no issues except he did mention rear tyres showing signs of wear, not critical but just to keep an eye on them. Must be a fault.

Saw an Alpine trained tech at the weekend.
I hear that the "fix" is to add more "pads" to the surround before the bonding glue is applied.
Not thinker pads, not 2 at a time, just more of them, up and down the A pillar.

Car is back with second replacement windscreen fitted, we'll see how that goes. I was told that they have used a different compound glue now so that it can flex a little more but also told that the windscreen is thinner than standard glass.

One other point from the technician when I mentioned the correspondence on this forum is that they don't really read forum stuff. Shame.

The bonded windscreen adds to the structure of all cars, it’s worrying that Alpine’s solution is to allow the body to flex, surely the structure should be stiffened

Saw an Alpine trained tech at the weekend.
I hear that the "fix" is to add more "pads" to the surround before the bonding glue is applied.
Not thinker pads, not 2 at a time, just more of them, up and down the A pillar.

Car is back with second replacement windscreen fitted, we'll see how that goes. I was told that they have used a different compound glue now so that it can flex a little more but also told that the windscreen is thinner than standard glass.

One other point from the technician when I mentioned the correspondence on this forum is that they don't really read forum stuff. Shame.

The bonded windscreen adds to the structure of all cars, it’s worrying that Alpine’s solution is to allow the body to flex, surely the structure should be stiffened

The structure is very stiff already - 22000 nm/degree is the figure I heard. So I think thicker glass might be the right approach if the problem persists.

[stephendell]

My understanding is that the official response has now changed.

There was an issue with the toughening of the original screens and Alpine has now changed the supplier and/or process.

All screens that start to crack from the bottom RH corner will be repacked without problem.

All others will be assessed on merit.

Any stone ships in proximity of the crack will void warranty exchange.

It seems the rads are a magnet for leaves and other debris. Giving mine a clean after a week away, and this was the main rad

The ones at the sides weren't as bad, and at least the vertical orientation of those means stuff tends to stick/fall to the bottom where it's more easily seen.

The wide grille openings mean it's easy enough to get a hoover in and pull it out - worst case you could pop the luggage box out and access from the top. I know some Porsches suffer a similar issue, ultimately leading to rads/condensers needing to be replaced due to corrosion.

How are people doing on rear tyre wear? Mine seem to be disappearing at quite a rate (possibly related to having too much fun ) but I'm wondering if it's worth going to Centre Gravity or similar to have a proper geo done. I know Life110 suggests some alternative settings too.

Just had the Michelins changed due to cracking - took Michelin six months to agree but I’ve had 17,500 miles out of them now. Never used launch control however...

[stephendell]

It seems the rads are a magnet for leaves and other debris. Giving mine a clean after a week away, and this was the main rad

The ones at the sides weren't as bad, and at least the vertical orientation of those means stuff tends to stick/fall to the bottom where it's more easily seen.

The wide grille openings mean it's easy enough to get a hoover in and pull it out - worst case you could pop the luggage box out and access from the top. I know some Porsches suffer a similar issue, ultimately leading to rads/condensers needing to be replaced due to corrosion.

How are people doing on rear tyre wear? Mine seem to be disappearing at quite a rate (possibly related to having too much fun ) but I'm wondering if it's worth going to Centre Gravity or similar to have a proper geo done. I know Life110 suggests some alternative settings too.

Sounds like you need some sexy zunsport grilles

https://www.facebook.com/groups/8014073 ... 627416630/

The grills look OK but I reckon they will considerably cut down the airflow to the radiator. Don't know how that will affect cooling,

Tim

[stephendell]

The grills look OK but I reckon they will considerably cut down the airflow to the radiator. Don't know how that will affect cooling,

Tim

Maybe just fit your own fine mesh behind the oem grille