Gordon Murray said in a recent interview with Harry Metcalf (well-known British motoring journalist) that his personal daily driver is an Alpine A110. That is, I think, the ultimate recommendation.

​@@acd1202 Yep. Its his daily. Frequently seen outside GMAs HQ.

It's a good handling car for sure. But practicality wise not sure it makes a good daily just because it works for Gordon Murray on his early morning blat to the office. If that's not a concern and the partner/wife has their own second car for groceries etc sure it will be brilliant.

It's his daily.

@@TheChannel1978well you don’t go For groceries daily, ir could be a daily driver and the wife have a separate car for the once a week groceries run. 😂

Would also give Toyota a reason to start working on a new MR2 if this sold well.

I would buy it if I had the money :D

Probably wouldn't pass US crash standards - too light

AVAILABLE IN THE US = Ariel Atom 4: Turbocharged 2.0 litre engine +350 BHP, curb weight 1,349 lb +/-, 0-62 mph = 2.8 sec. Ariel Atom 4 = $83,750. Alpine A110 R = $102,500.

@@someguydino6770 Ariel Atom is just a street legal go kart. It's not quite the same as a full bodied car. But the Atom is definitely one the the more obscure toys that Americans *do* have access to

As someone driving a fiesta st i can confirm. Acceleration and top speed are fun. But you just get used to it at some point. Tight handling is just always fun. Also in cheaper cars you can go all out and not be afraid of ending you and your cars existence.

@@Mr.Marbles I went from a Fiesta ST to an E46 M3 to a 2023 GR86. Not that the M3 was necessarily super heavy, but the 86 just feels so much more playful. More usable day to day too, find myself able to floor it far more often than with the M3. While I do miss that push from the S54 on highway on-ramps, in every other situation the 86 is just so much more fun. The ST was also a blast, but personally prefer the RWD of the 86 as it makes the car feel more excited, feels like the rear end wiggles around a lot which is super fun. Would recommend you try a 2nd gen 86/BRZ if you manage to find one!

I had a Mini once too…the most fun car to drive and the worst car to own…went through 2 transmissions before it was written off, amongst the power steering going out and the dash lit up like a Christmas tree😂

350z to mini cooper s (r53) here so definitely agree 👍🏼

@@davidsucks922 im 6“7 so finding anything small and sporty is a real challenge. Havent tried the gt86 brz yet, maybe ill fit. I just know that an mx5 is an absolute no-go 😂 alpine a110 also seems great.

France has produces many fantastic cars with a different philosophy that other nationalities. As a cyclist happily paying Euros for each gram saved I'm all for low weight. There are so many environmental benefits. And, just saying, the Citroen 2CV has its brakes on the inner side of the drive shaft... ;)

Base A110: ~$68K A110 R: ~$120K at French prices with exchange rate on May 9, 2023.

@@JohnPMiller didn't say it was cheap btw

@@baptistepcd4397 I know. I just wanted people to know that it's not Ferrari pricing, but it's also not Mazda MX-5 pricing. Alpine did a nice job with the new A110, which is better than the original in every way, but I'd still rather have an original A110.

@@JohnPMiller slightly below Lotus Emira. It's very similar to the motorcycle market, you can probably get a better, cheaper bike from Japan, but you will only get a European bike from Europe.

Haha, very grateful to be here, excited for the race!!

was it max & checo podcast?

@@EngineeringExplained mahle non magnetic electric motor for recycleability and cheaper cost, but needs transmission. subaru wrx high torque transmission, toyota normal first gear then cvt, for high torque

Nissan can just pull a Toyota and just rebadge Renault/Alpine cars as NISMO Nissan/Ininiti cars and give them a kick back. I would buy an Infiniti A110 variant in a heartbeat!

@@anydaynow01 That’s not gonna happen. Alpine and Infiniti are two different brands and each have their identity. Personally, I cannot imagine this thing being sold under the Infiniti brand. Plus, Renault actually has plans to bring the Alpine brand stateside by 2027 or 2028, so there’s no need for any rebadging whatsoever.

@@this_dude5307 Nissan is part of Renault but I think the partnership is about to be over I’m not sure that’s what I heard.

@@yungboicontigo9278 The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance recently gotten an overhaul to make it more equal for all three of them. Ever since the alliance was formed, Renault had the most power over Nissan and Mitsubishi to an extent since Nissan owns a majority of them since 2016. To make it more equal for Nissan and Mitsubishi, Renault agreed to cut their stake in Nissan and give Nissan and Mitsubishi more independence and control of their own operations.

Bring back the LeCar!

Lancia Scorpion is a disappointment to me slow because the US version got the federalized 1.8 liter motor instead of the more powerful european 2.0. The car I'm most familiar with was autocrossed locally had a truely annoying habit of losing engine oil when it's oil filter unscrewed itself from the side of the motor. The cars owner made a habit of checking the filter, it loosened on numerous times. None of the 124 spiders with used the same engine seemed suffer the oil filter problem, it may be something to do with the east/west engine orientation. Please check your filter.

They're pretty flawed out of the box. We have spent a lot of time sorting issues they had from the factory, in addition to restoring a few things, and the car runs and drives well at this point.

LOL... I am a Lancia fan and had to search what Lancia is that... a Montecarlo... that's 037's father... a Rally Legend... it beat the Quattros with just 2wd in 1983... last 2wd to win World Rally Championship...

@@luiscarlosvieira3966 Sort of father. The Montecarlo is great in its own right. It's a great looking car. It's a personal favorite of mine. Because it's a realistic car. An 037 or, say, Ferrari 288 GTO is not.

Hey... does this A110R tend to cause lift-off or snap oversteer?... Since many cars made in MR tend not to be understeering, especially while making trail braking and lifting off the throttle, even the F1 cars do, that's why Hamillton sets his F1 car to be understeering bias to play it safe. Many people wreck their cars into the peace of trash because of this, even Max Verstappen has wrecked his car a couple of time in his F1 career.

I can't even afford to dream. I'm still paying off a loan on a daydream I had three years ago.

thats no real car. buy F150.

@@redneckster6639 Average american joe dialogue

@@redneckster6639 🤓

You are so right, they have Infiniti over here, no reason they can't sell the A110 at those dealerships, or at least a Nissan variant of it.

​@@redneckster6639 yeah like the millions of people that have been buying the f150 and never using it for it's purpose therefore guzzling very important ressources/fuel.... Shame on you!

2 electric SUV’s?! No A110? Why do they tease us so!

Forthcoming Alpine models are already planned and will be... full electric. Forget about lightweight.

@@michelq29 there will be an Alpine a110 e-ternite which is an electric a110 with 350hp and only 200kg more than the petrol one still being as light as a cayman or more and fully electric

Hi @@aitorgallego98, A110 E-ternité is only a running concept-car created for marketing, as far as I know. And it's announced added weight is +268kg which is... +20/+25%! Futur production models are, like... 2000kg electric suvs and other things like that.

that's awesome this car is sweet

The fact that this is the top comment rn makes it so much better 😂

I don't see how stiffening the rear swaybar would make the rear roll center rise, as the roll center is based on the geometry of the control arms, which is unaffected by rollbar location or stiffness. I think you're talking about overall axle roll stiffness and changing the roll couple distribution...

@@jsquared1013 Okay, that was a bit oversimplified. But only looking at the geometric roll center also is an oversimplification. Of course a stiffer anti roll bar initially only increases the roll stiffness, but only if the stiffness equally increases on both axles. If the rear stiffness increases, but the front stiffness doesn't it gets a bit complicated. Imagine a car with a rear anti roll bar that allows absolutely no difference between both wheels. Now, if the car rolls, the roll axis is in the middle of the front axle, but on the rear axle, the roll axis goes through the outer wheel and rolling lifts the inner wheel off the ground. This is just an example of how the anti roll bar can affect the roll center without changing the geometry.

Exactly yes!

If you check the Renault Mégane RS Trophy-R and it's Nurburgring Record you will realize that when it comes to performance the Renault group knows what to do even with a manual Gearbox. Next episode will now be the Pike's Peak with a specific car upgrade.

Most likely it's for both reasons. The stars lined up.

C'mon, the alpine A110 is already the espiritual sucessor of a car... the '63 alpine a110. It is myth on its own, it won the first WRC!

Unfortunately Alpine announced that they will be coming to the U.S… but they’ll only sell electric crossovers here. It’s the biggest slap in the face to enthusiasts Renault has ever given, and the fact that they brought the car we actually want to a track event to hype up their future crossovers that have nothing in common is insulting.

Nicer version of a Twingo. MDR! Just joking but yeah, the R seems quite cool. I wonder if the Gendarmerie drives the R versions too.

always thought the front looked weird in pictures, but in person it really is a good looking car

@@dynlenoir of course no they drive "police version" of the base a110, A110r is a track car

What's crazy is those cars seem "heavy" and down on power compared to this Alpine. I would totally take a Gr Yaris or Gr Corolla though, I think they are the perfect daily driver, and the AWD is nice to have.

C'est faux l'Alpine est en vente en Australie et le Japon

That's actually better than my Honda City...

For Americans, that's about 43 mpg. It really shouldn't be impressive for a car this small and light, yet it is. I see no technical reason why a Miata shouldn't get 50 mpg, but then they'd have to make 6th a super-tall highway only gear and journalists who test road cars on the track would complain that it's useless. Corvettes used to get 30-35 mpg on the highway with a big V8. IMO, the "close-ratio gearbox" fad is making sports cars and motorcycles worse to use on the road.

@@rightwingsafetysquad9872 you beat me to the corvette. C5 vettes were getting into the 30s on the highway easily. And I agree that gear ratios are getting way too short. It's done to make slow cars feel fast but it wrecks fuel economy.

@@wigletron2846 IMO, if you have a 6+ speed transmission: First should be super short to make starting off easy, perhaps so short it's not useful in a drag race. Top gear should be super long to maximize fuel economy around 80 mph. Everything in the middle can be as close ratio as desired to make it fun. At least Zac Courts at Revzilla agrees.

@@rightwingsafetysquad9872 there is nothing "fad" about close-ratio gearboxes, that is how performance cars have been designed for decades on decades. It's better for performance, period. The complaints on modern cars is actually usually the opposite: overly tall low gears (1st-3rd) to pass California's asinine/archaic drive-by noise test. You can still have a close-ratio gearbox with a tall top gear for highway cruising mpg.

Thanks! Has been a fun weekend thus far. 🙌

My bike gets 3 lbs per hp.

@@aluisious you can't compare bike and car

They do need a stick shift manual though, eventually it will be the differentiator between soulful ICE manuals and soulless EV "automatic" cars.

🤞🤞🤞

Hmm The Exige. "She will be mine.. oh yes"

NO...marketing is the worst enemy. We live in a fat world thanks to marketing, for food, for sodas and the, for cars...

This or a Lotus Elise, and toyotas ugly little GR is also a rocket.

How does it ride? The NVH? I mean I have no reference point other than my Honda City 😂 which handles like a somewhat sporty sofa (the latest ones are boats, but the earlier gen 2 one I have has a great ride handling balance for a family sedan) and weighs about the same as the Alpine. But I guess the Alpine will be much sharper in the turns significantly quicker with nearly 2.5x the horses.

All other supercar makers : We are benchmarking against the Bugatti Chiron! Gordon Murray : We are benchmarking against an Alpine A110... Best marketing of all time when the Godfather himself approves.

Would you (or could you) shell out the $60K+ for one if they did?

It looks much better in the metal (and carbon), especially in darker colours where you get to to see the line from roof to window to boot / trunk more clearly.

But weak chasis about torsional rigidity for be a roadster, and front engine.

@@llavero5 Nah. I sold my M2 and kept my ND MX-5. They're that good.

Toyota engine with performance that excites :)

The upcoming Emira with the AMG 4 cylinder is almost exactly like the A110 :)

@ChadGeidel merc 4 cyl is powerful not reliable. Will be a pass.

​@@ChadGeidelThe Emira is quite a bit bigger and expected a little heavier also. Good competitor but not the same. In some tests the Emira V6 lost from a base A110 on the fun factor.

I’m guessing the a110 won’t meet crash safety standards in the USA.

@@aluisious don't worry about that, European standards are quite demanding.

I think Alpine/Renault fears (and imo rightfully) that they could only fill a very small niche in the american market, which is by en large dominated by excessively big and heavy vehicles, especially in the premium segment. Here in Europe you can spot some of those american market vehicles (like a RAm or recently and Escalade) from time to time and compared to "normal" sized cars, like an A110, a Cayman or another small coupes/hatchbacks, those american vehicles are just complete MUTANTS. Furthermore, the (already limited) american sports car market seems to be largely dominated on the one side by excessively powerfull, yet relatively cheap models like Mustangs or Dodge's and/or already very popular foreign brands like Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, etc. Honorable mention goes to the Corvette C8 aswell, it's a genuinely impressive car and value for money. But all of this means, that there is probably only a very small (potential) market for another boutique foreign brand (which pretty much noone has heard of before and probably will forget about immediately afterwards) with a very particular/limited offering, that might not find enough actual customers in the end, to justify the required huge investments into US-certification, eventually required changes, and a distribution/service network. It would probably be already a huge improvement, if US-regulators would start to crack down on some of those highly regressive and outdated regulations, that favor those big and heavy trucks/SUVs and bring vehicle and make street/vehicle regulations more compatible with the rest of the world and in addition open the US market for such nieche foreign products. But that probably won't happen anytime soon or ever, bc american Politics tends to be highly protective of their domestic market/manufacturers and therefore maintains some really high barriers for entry, which makes it that much harder for brands like Alpine to even attempt it. Harley Davidson is a really good example of how selective American protectionism has been deployed to carve out a certain domestic market environment, in order to give a life line to an ostensibly stagmanting and declining company/industry, which on its own just wasn't as innovative and competitive enough to survive in the global market. In this state of affairs, it doesn't really matter that the american market and its domestic industry is still following some of those increasingly anachronistic paradigms of big/heavy/wasteful products/life-cycles as primarily status symbols, rather than arguably much more sensible/practical solutions for daily use. Same reasons, why station waggons and compact cars in general are near extinct in the US. In the end, Uncle Sam as the proprietor of the premier global currency, can and will go to some extraordinary lenghts to protect domestic industries when disadvantaged in the global market, and do so often even without demanding some real changes (especially in corporate governance away from short-term profit seeking to long terms sustainable practices) from those companies. Hence, putting any real demands/stress on "American manufacturing" can become very quickly politically toxic and is therefore usually avoided like the plague.

@@lennoxbaumbach390 Well said, and it also doesn't help with the increasing popularity of F1 in the USA that Alpine is slipping down the order. One of the grips Alonso and Prost had with Alpine/Renault is executives and bean counters didn't want to spend the money to be championship contenders, they just wanted their name on the grid and that was enough. To sell the A110 or other Alpine vehicles (or Infiniti rebadged cars) in the USA they need to be contenders in F1 at the pointy end.

@@aluisious If the Fiat 500, Alfa Romeo 4c and Smart Fortwo did then I’m sure the Alpine would be fine lol

As they say "It's always more fun to drive a slow car fast than to drive a fast car slow!"

Gordon Murray's cars are stick shift though, just as this car should have been. They will learn with time though, if it is ICE, the owner wants the stick shift manual engagement!

@@anydaynow01 good point. Jason mentioned that the reason for the dual clutch was packaging, which I can understand. That must have been a pretty big reason because so far as I know a dual clutch transmission is often heavier than a manual. I wonder if they did give up weight for packaging? Also, gear shifts for mid engine cars are difficult. The one in the MGF was cables, and I found that uninspiring. Lamborghini's managed it by bringing the gearbox in under the cabin and then putting the drive back through the engine again. Toyota MR2 was cables too I think and Okay I found. Lotuses? Gordon Murray's have very carefully machined gearshift linkages designed in conjunction with the gear box to ensure there's no slop and to get a good feel. That's the best way, but it's a pricey thing to put in a car. So I also wonder if the difficulty of getting a good shift persuaded Alpine to go dual clutch. Better to have a good dual clutch than a rubbish manual?

@@marcelromijn2227 Perfect, thank you! I'm impressed with the fun-focused gearing. Someone has done well to keep the advertising and accountant departments away from the engineering - a breath of fresh air.

Michelin not in the us?? They only do tires and they sell in the US.

renault sport doesn't exist anymore they have been replaced by alpine

They do have Infiniti dealers here, I'm sure they can work out an agreement!

@@anydaynow01 yeah it's a bit strange they never did, but now Renault is not in the best terms with Nissan.

@@uleertel Wow i thought they were ban since France didnt go to Irak and Americans don't buy French brands.

As nice as carbon wheels are for performance - less unsprung mass and flex and all that, on the road they’re a bit dangerous. Because they are so stiff and because they don’t bend like alloys, they can fracture, crack or shatter from things that wouldn’t normally effect the integrity of an alloy. I know on the terrible UK roads things could go south very quickly

@@ChapHammersmith True, valid points.

I just got a twin clutch car after driving manual transmissions for 60 years. The twin clutch shifts faster and smoother than I ever did. The only loss is the tactile feel of actually moving gears with the shift lever.

@@soaringvulture A twin clutch should DEFINITELY be able to shift faster and smoother than any single clutch manual, whether it's a human shifting or even an automated single clutch. The twin clutch can literally be in two gears at once...99% in 1st gear, 1% in 2nd gear, then 50/50, then 1% in 1st and 99% in 2nd, then 100% in 2nd. The single clutch can only go from 1st to neutral to 2nd. The twin clutch in just mechanically superior. But that's not FUN.

Would you (or could you) shell out the $60K+ for one if they did?

@@TucsonDude Yeah, I think that price point is about right for that much car. If they brought it here AND offered it as a manual, I'd be all over it for $60K - $65K. Same but in twin clutch? Again, I'd have to drive it and decide if I really enjoy it without a third pedal.

Alpine is working on an electric line, and it includes a SUV. (and a Renault 5 like) We'll see if they work as hard to keep the weight low (relatively speeking)

Most people are not car enthusiasts. SUVs are for the boring masses.

This pearl of wisdom could only have come from a truly gifted person, bravo.