Renault-Alpine A110-50... Can it live up to its namesake?

On March 14, 2012 Renault dropped a bomb. They were releasing a second generation of the Renault Alpine A110. The Alpine A110 is one of my top 10 cars of all time. It is an incredibly light weight rear engined rally car. It is strange that this little car was as competitive as it was in the rally racing scene but it was and remains an incredibly versatile classic. Renault released specs on their new midrange super car. Drive-train will be a 3.5L V6 mid engined configuration producing 400 horsepower connected to a dual clutch six speed with both foot clutch or paddle shifting capabilities.The engine sucks air through a roof mounted carbon fiber funnel style intake.

Adjustable Sachs dampers and 14 inch six piston calipers control the race tuned chassis. The car was designed as an homage to the original thoroughbred car. You can tell that the cues are very similar by the LED light rings on the A110-50, reminiscent of the pronounced fog lights which make up so much of the original A110's character. It is painted in the obvious French racing blue, also a staple of the original A110.

It is a strikingly good looking car which is odd for post war French, however, I have to wonder if it would be as good as the original. Some people get off on a great back breaking, tight chassis. They want to feel every pebble, and I know this is a race specific machine but even so, I don't. I like that old cars try and push you off the road and into a tree. The A110-50 does come with the same insanity as the original, mainly no ABS, no traction control. That is the fun in driving cars though. If they can't kill you than how else do you learn to cope with power? I don't mean that to say you need 500hp to get into mischief, old 115hp 4 cylinders can easily kill you if you don't respect them. Spin out in the right place on bad brakes and a sloppy chassis and you are rolling. It all leads back to the theory, if you dont learn to drive old cars fast, than you dont really know how to drive any car fast.

I think Renault did a great job on the A110-50. It's plenty scary, plenty fast and beautiful, but I still wouldn't buy it. Not only because I'm too poor, but because its not a really an A110. The original A110's specs in 1961 were 1.1L inline 4 engine producing 95bhp (highest powered engine configuration topped at 140hp), 5 speed manual weighing 1700 lbs. The A110 was a pioneer in Rally Racing and helped develop and define the sport not to mention claimed wins like the 1971 Monte Carlo Rally. It subsequently became the first ever World Rally Champion in 1973. The A110 competed against the biggest names in the industry with better funding, higher horsepower, and more experienced drivers. This miniscule rear engined dynamo still ilicits awe among both Alpine guru's and Rally Racing officianatos.

On the television series Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson was reviewing the new Farrari 599GTO. He showed the history of the GTO, the 250 GTO, the 288 GTO, and now the 599 GTO. He said naming a car a GTO was kind of like naming your kid Jesus.. It is true. The namesake of a car that drove a franchise to so many victories should demand incredible respect. Sadly though, Zagato's Ghosts invitation to drive the new Renault-Alpine A110-50 must have been lost in the mail so I cant say whether it lives up to the name or not. But you can bet that the pressure is on, and the purists aren't going to go quietly into the night.

Back to the concept of older cars typically being better, even though they arent. When I started welding I had no training, I just jumped right in. I bought a crappy Hobart flux core welder and began welding everything I could find together. I burned big giant holes through everything I touched until I got the hang of it. When I finally picked up a gas mig, it seemed so easy it took me time to trust that it was doing the job. That's how I look at cars. Practice on the old until you are good, automatically be great at the new. But the funny thing is, the new Miller gas mig just sits there in the corner of the shop, and I still prefer my old flux core.

As I said in a previous post, my wife drives a mk5 VW GTI. It is a very tight little car. She loves the direct port injected 4 cylinder turbo and drives it like a maniac. I am partial to the VW/Audi cars. The B6 S4 was a particularly fun car to drive. 40 valve V8 with a 6 speed manual, Quattro and a tuned chassis, it was so well tuned I could go around a round-about at over 40 mph without chirping a tire. It was incredible, I was glued to the console, but it really wasn't all that fun. It was terrifying, but not that fun. The old MGB-GT is far more interesting in a canyon or my older mk1 watercooled VW's over the newer sport tuned chassis. So why is that?

Old cars have soul. They tell you how they feel. If they are grumpy, they act grumpy. Sometimes they develop issues just to develop issues and then magically heal themselves. Clarkson was again quoted on a great movie called "Love the Beast" saying that cars develop personalities based on the ways that they break. Their subtle imperfections make them endearing to us, but make sure if you do drive an old car that she's beautiful. If she's ugly you'll push her off a cliff at the first sign of difficulty.

If you've ever tried to start a mechanical deisel in sub freezing temps or have altitude starvation on your carbureted cars you'll get what I mean. This to some people I'm sure would be their own idea of hell, but I think its all great fun. In the world of drive by wire and paddle shifting gearboxes, its all gotten far too technical. You cant feel anything, you're not meant to feel anything. Throw the top down on a convertible and they have engineered windscreens so that you don't even have to feel the wind anymore. Why?..

Now, while I'm sure that a slew of sorority girls and fashion models would pile into the new A110-50, but the experience of driving it would be as numb and vapid in comparison as getting to know the girls in it. I don't like sorority girls, or models really. I like my wife who seems as complex sometimes as an old Jaguar 4.2 V-12 on webbers, but looks like a Ferrari 458 to me. That is why she is interesting to me. That is why I love having her around. Though she's young and like's pretty things, because she is complex in great ways, my wife would choose the original A110.

Scott Madsen
- Zagatos Ghost