Renault - Back To Basics

Renault has resurrected the dormant Alpine brand and its first modern car is simply glorious.

- Daryl Lee

In a world gone mad with power, in a world where supercars have over 700hp and hypercars pack around 1,000hp or more, a humble sports car with barely 250hp to its name should barely raise any eyebrows, if it doesn’t elicit a yawn first.

I would argue that a sports car’s role is not to have crushing power. A sports car is supposed to be brisk, but its main remit is to entertain without intimidating. Smallish dimensions and lively handling, with just enough speed to keep things interesting is the key to a sports car’s success. It’s the reason why Porsche’s Boxster and Cayman have been the de facto segment leaders for over three decades.

But, it seems the Porsches have finally met their match in the Alpine. If you don’t see the enormity of that statement, then I encourage you to take a test drive in a Boxster and/or a Cayman, then look me in the eye and tell me that isn’t the sweetest-handling car you’ve driven. Sure, there have been pretenders to the throne during that time. The Lotus Elise, Alfa Romeo 4C and fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 have all tried and failed to reach the standards set by the Porsche twins.

And here’s why: the Lotus is too spartan and ingress/egress is too hard unless you’re a rake-thin gymnast; the Alfa is too manic and it doesn’t even get power steering; and the Mazda, while extremely affordable, is too slow. There’s also the new Toyota Supra, but we’ll reserve judgment for when we get our hands on one.

The Alpine may not have the luxury of the Porsches, but it’s a good deal cheaper. The A110 costs S$238,800 without COE, and the cheapest 718 Cayman you can get is S$273,988, also excluding COE premiums.