New Alpine A110 owners experiences and photos.

Just to be clear - I’m talking about normal mode.

CB

Just to be clear - I’m talking about normal mode.

CB

Sorry I misled you. I did see a flash of blue when I fired up this morning in Normal. It was very cold and I got the beware of black ice message. Not sure if they are related.

Finally managed to get a photo of the 'blue glow' as we've discussed. Again, it was when restarting a warm car. I'm pretty sure it must mean something as it survived a further quick test restart, and disappeared after I'd driven only a few car lengths. You can see the 'blue glow' in both normal and sport modes... (For some reason the forum has turned the thumbnails upside down but if you click into the photos, they are the right way up...)

CB

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A few pics from a recent long weekend up to Scotland. Second set of alloys fitted with Michelin Cross Climates definitely earned their keep.

Up to 4000 miles in 3 months now, it's just addictive

Looks an amazing time at last someone that’s actually talking about driving the hell out of the car which is what it’s been designed for, rather than talking about the bloody information system, well done what’s your next adventure, I haven’t had the opportunity to drive one really fast on long sweepers to see how well it’s balanced at real speed.

Got a week on the Isle of Man planned late April, then off to the Alps in September. Somehow trying to keep the annual mileage under 10k, but not sure I'm going to manage it

Before the Alpine arrived, my main toy was a Caterham. I put 7000 miles on that last year...

It's very competent at speed. I'm sure the S is better in terms of body control, but on lumpy bumpy roads the ride quality is unbelievable. And the fixed back buckets lovely. I did 1600 miles in 4 days with no aches or pains at all.

Before the Alpine arrived, my main toy was a Caterham. I put 7000 miles on that last year...

It's very competent at speed. I'm sure the S is better in terms of body control, but on lumpy bumpy roads the ride quality is unbelievable. And the fixed back buckets lovely. I did 1600 miles in 4 days with no aches or pains at all.

The only car I have owned that "grabbed" me and metaphorically said to me "FFS drive!" as much as (or perhaps a bit more than) the A110 was my Caterham. The difference is that there is no downside to driving the Alpine - but there are plenty with a Caterham.

To be honest I was all set to buy one and we had one for an 1hr and it was amazing, superbly balanced, l loved how it just sort of slowly goes into a 4 wheel drift on roundabouts when at speed, I was totally hooked.
I then made a mistake and ended up having to go on a motorway for a bit and that’s what changed my mind, if you are on it and fully engaged it’s amazing every thing seats, suspension compliance, etc however on the motorway the road noise from the rear was intrusive on a long trip that would get to me a bit of sound deadening is needed in the rear arch, more importantly there is nowhere to put your arms, the window is very high so nothing there and the door supports where to low for me, and there is nothing in the central area, a pull down arm or something, 4 hrs with your arms tucked in gets to you because in the real world probably only 15 to 20% of the time you are really driving the car hard.

Silly things i no but when you are going to parm out £50,000 on a car those things would get to me because it is a comfortable long distance car with just a few simple things that need sorting out it could be a proper all rounder

I've not experienced these issues on long distance runs in the A110. I'm quite small and slim, so maybe a slightly different shape.

The only dynamic 'vice' I've experienced in all the miles I've done in my A110 is the susceptibility to high winds.

As a matter of interest @Custard, what is it that you are currently driving, which you were planning to replace with the A110?

CB

On the motorway I just drop my hands on the wheel a bit and rest my elbows on the seat bolsters. I don't find the noise intrusive (I still have the caterham, my feelings about NVH may not be typical), and I think it's quieter than many 911s and Caymans because the tyres aren't particularly big - and many Porsches seem to suffer from large amounts of tyre noise. The Cayman being more open behind the seats won't help either.

I've had my car for 18 months and its been on a few long journeys including visiting our son and family in Geneva. I'm 6' 1" and 16 stones and have no comfort issues at all. It certainly seems to have been designed to cater for larger people When cruising on the autoroute at 80mph normal conversation is possible and as suggested I let my arms drop lower on the steering wheel. You are close to the passenger but that can be fun. I find that the road noise is very acceptable, certainly compared with the Porsches I've owned. If there were any significant comfort and noise problems my wife would soon comment. Our day to day car is a Range Rover so I feel that gives a good base on which to measure the usability of the Alpine.

Tim

As others have said, by class standards the Alpine is good motorway cruiser. Certainly significantly less tyre roar than a Cayman or, from what I read, a Supra. Not as quiet as modern saloons but certainly possible to converse in normal tones or listen to music at 3 figure speeds. Stability in side winds results in conflicting opinions. It's certainly not as planted as a Cayman, but mine is perfectly fine. It's certainly tyre pressure sensitive and, I suspect geo sensitive too. I've just had geo set up and it's pretty much bang in the middle of recommended settings now. It had a bit too much rear toe and not quite enough OS front camber and was rather asymetrically set up. It's now (predictably) a tad less stable - but still fine - but more even in it's cornering in left and right hand bends.

Where did you get the geo settings from? Or did you take it to a dealer for the geo?

Where did you get the geo settings from? Or did you take it to a dealer for the geo?

I took it to a specialist (JPS in Milton Keynes). They (and I imagine any specialist) have access to a database of settings including Alpine. I was considering varying it from standard. However, since it was likely, given the difference from spec, that just making it standard would make the car a little more nervous, I was reluctant to exaggerate that. I also have downloaded the settings from https://life110.co.uk, but I'm not going to put them on just yet.

I've not experienced these issues on long distance runs in the A110. I'm quite small and slim, so maybe a slightly different shape.

The only dynamic 'vice' I've experienced in all the miles I've done in my A110 is the susceptibility to high winds.

As a matter of interest @Custard, what is it that you are currently driving, which you were planning to replace with the A110?

CB

For fun cars I had 2 Alpines an A610 and a Gta Lemans, I sold my 610 plus I had an old bike collection which I had built up over many years which I sold last year as well. Could not sell my GTA as it’s just mad to drive no electronics and gets the adrenaline pumping.
All the money is now disappearing into my Citroen Ds Rally car which hopefully should be pretty amazing to drive one day on the ruff.