BE HERE NOW

The Lotus Emira and Alpine A110 are sports car heroes with uncertain futures. Which should you enjoy while you can?

- STEPHEN DOBIE

A PAIR OF THRILLING, LIGHTWEIGHT SPORTS CARS ON a scenic, undulating road. What should be a party is in danger of becoming a wake. Lord knows what the latest news from Hethel will be by the time you read this, but Lotus's denial of the plant's rumoured closure felt a touch thinner when it announced 550 redundancies at the home of Emira production. We already know that Alpine will soon lay the A110 to rest in its current form: we're in the final year of production as things stand, with an electric replacement to come. The same goes for our duo's Porsche 718 rival, for which the order books recently closed - albeit quickly followed by Porsche confirming ICE will still be offered in the next-gen car.

So let's smile about what we do still have. The Lotus is freshened up in new Turbo SE spec, which uprates the base, AMG-powered four-cylinder Emira to 400bhp while ticking plenty of the most desirable and dynamic options boxes. The Alpine is, um, old. A rejig for the final year of production has since morphed this A110 S into a GTS, but we already know the various permutations of this little coupe well enough to be delighted with whatever we're given. More than.

While their two-seat, mid-engine, rear-drive schtick is similar, there's a minor gulf between these two on paper. The Alpine is the underdog, priced from £69,890 in new GTS form, its Renault-sourced 1.8-litre turbo four producing 296bhp at 6300rpm and 251lb ft from 2400rpm. With just 1102kg to shift, it's quick, the Dieppe folk claiming 4.2sec to 62mph and a 170mph top speed with the optional aero kit. As with this S, the GTS adds lower, stiffer ‘Cup’ suspension. If you don't want it, you buy the base £55,160, 249bhp A110.