Alpine A110 | ALPINIST

22 March 2021 Redazione News, Road Trips, Stories, Tested

Despite its happy face, the Alpine wants to be driven with arrogance, thrown into hairpin bends rather than accompanied, making you step decisively on the brake pedal close to the curve, hoping in some way to unbalance it and find out if there is a way to put it in trouble.

CLIMB #01 | COL DE LA BONETTE

ALPINE A110

Words by Alessandro Marrone / Photos by S. Lomax

Every self-respecting journey begins with an early morning start, with the alarm clock that shakes everything around and interrupts night dreams, leaving room for those of day. All of this take shape slowly, but especially after a providential breakfast courtesy of croissants and coffee, lots of coffee. The problem is that today the alarm decided to go on vacation and our start planned at dawn turned into a frantic race against the clock, with Steve (the photographer, ed) and Andrea (the bravest colleague concerning the race at the breakfast buffet, ed) definitely thinking we might be missed in action and took advantage of the free field to attack too many pan-au-chocolat. Luckily we already find ourselves in the designated area and after driving along the tight hairpin bends of the Col de la Cayolle yesterday, it is finally the turn of the first of the giants of the Alps, the first notch on the peaks to be conquered in this 2020 that has literally upset all plans.

The Col de la Bonette is just a few dozen kilometers away from here and despite being 8.30 am, the sun has not yet managed to make its way through the thick blanket of clouds. All around, a thick fog prevents us from seeing more than a few meters from our nose, not the ideal scenario we have hypothesized, especially after having found a pleasant sunny day that lasted from morning to sunset, just a few hours ago. You have come this far, having the best of an agenda that a day after the other goes through hoops to frame test drives, events and everything that revolves around the so-called post-Covid restart and going back reorganizing the ideas is no option. Time to put the luggage on the support car, stowing only the bare essentials in the two load compartments of the Alpine A110 Légende, a pair of heavy jackets to cope with possible drop in temperatures and some photo gears.

Yesterday we traveled an equally interesting and panoramic pass, deeply breathing the fresh breeze of one of the most pristine places in the French Alps, but when it comes to the Col de la Bonette everything takes on an even more special charm, partly because with its 2,860 meters is the highest asphalt road in Europe (even if only thanks to a clever move by the Department that literally built a ring of asphalt that revolves around the summit, just enough to obtain the primacy), but especially due to the fact that the width of the road and the incredible beauty of a landscape dotted with ruins, gigantic stones and a vegetation that becomes more and more sporadic as you climb towards the iconic monolith, offer one of the most exciting driving experiences out there. If you have not yet driven the Bonette, you absolutely have to make up for it, possibly in early summer or early autumn, when the meadows start to turn orange.

Today it’s like stepping into a huge white wall, with curves taking shape too late for us to keep a pace even remotely close to what the A110 could offer on such a road. We pull over ‘cause it is better to have a proper look at the current situation. Moving away a few meters we can hear the click of Lomax’s camera, which stoically dedicates himself to the first details and the interior of this Légende version. With its brown leather seats it underlines how a superlight can also be the ideal choice for a longer trip than usual, but we had no doubts about this, because after all, if your destination is a mountain road with a thousand hairpin turns, every sacrifice is bearable, just like the lack of storage compartments in here – with the exception of the one under the gearbox tunnel and the optional leather case placed between the two seats. After all, what would you expect from a sports car called Alpine, if not the opportunity to come face to face with a small piece of engineering that pulls 252 horsepower out of a seemingly simple 4-cylinder turbocharged 1.8?

Always very predictable on a dynamic level, the A110 manages to offer the reactivity of a weight of just over a ton (1,123 kg) to the providential maximum torque of 320 Nm delivered at just 2,000 rpm, allowing you to enter through corners with gas wide open and play with its chassis, or going for a clean drive and exploit the power of the turbo as if you were playing hide and seek chasing the following apex. With the passing of minutes and the sun still partially hidden somewhere above us, the Col de la Bonette begins to show its shapes, finally offering greater visibility, but still leaving some wet patches on the asphalt. A quick glance of understanding and from Sport mode we move on to Track mode, inhibiting the A110’s traction control thus taking advantage of the wider hairpin bends for properly freeing the rear of the car, just to make sure I don’t get rusty overnight.

The 1.8 screams like a maniac and the lack of a manual transmission is immediately forgiven once you realize that keeping your two hands firmly on the steering wheel allows you to dare something more than usual, taking advantage of the lightness and the small size of the body of the car. Ours is a continuous come and go and while the 4-cylinder gulps down petrol like an alcoholic in the heart of his happy hour, I face my favorite stretch, the one that finally returns to the gut of the mountain along the hairpin bends around the Fort de Restefond. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Lomax on top of the upper hairpin and with the road all for myself I throw the Alpine from corner to corner with the intention of pushing the tires to the limit of their grip. The behavior of the A110 is amazing and pops out of corners without losing even a single engine rev, with understeer made non-existent when you start putting load to the back. And this carousel continues for who knows how many more kilometers, reaching the monolith no longer shrouded in fog, but still in the shadow of the threatening clouds that hid behind the thick white bank.

The A110 Légende maintains the dynamic characteristics of the Première Edition driven months ago, offering precise and engaging driving even in Sport mode, with active traction control that undoubtedly makes climbing of this kind more affordable for everyone, tackling a damp road which can hide some pitfalls in terms of grip. The moment you loosen the grip on the steering wheel this proves to be the smallest GT that € 61,000 can buy and it does not matter if the sat-navigator is not accurate and if the plastic key is substantially identical to that of any Clio. The Alpine knows exactly where to tickle the fantasy of its driver, making him feel like a hero thanks to feedbacks that are always clear and easy to interpret. This is probably the most interesting aspect of the French climber, the way in which it manages to communicate with those driving it, which we can compare to that of a Lotus, without the compromise of having to become contortionists to get on and off and with a power steering which on the whole works well and does not penalize the pleasure of brushing curves as you would expect.

Many cyclists look at it, some ask what car it is and once you mention the Alpine name they all respond in the same way “I remember the one from the 70s”. In that very moment it is like awakening childhood memories, the same ones that a car created with fun as its main target takes you to the roof of Europe and asks to be able to resume the adventure, entering the southern side of the climb, overcoming the abandoned buildings of Camp des Fourches and descending to the bottom of the road, where we agreed that the best way to come back to Italy was neither the shortest nor the most obvious, but the same one from which we got here. “Does this mean we have to go back up again?” Steve asks me. “Precisely, that’s the point.” Yet another wink, some more shots with him ducking on the side of the road, without the need to use our walkie-talkies given that the A110 snorts and crackles when shifting and coasting. Despite its happy face, the Alpine wants to be driven with arrogance, thrown into hairpin bends rather than accompanied, making you step decisively on the brake pedal close to the curve, hoping in some way to unbalance it and find out if there is a way to put it in trouble. There is no one around now, the road is all for us and the visibility is finally such as not to create scruples when the revs go up and the nose seems to rise a few millimeters, with the rear wheels focused on pushing the little dark blue baguette into that wild asphalt snake that will remain dormant and buried in snow the long winter to come.

Something like 7 hours and a full 100 octane tank before I was still into the world of dreams. Now I’m daydreaming, looping through one of the most exciting roads on the planet at the wheel of one of the most amazing sports cars around, the ideal tribute to one of the many rally legends that have written indelible pages in the magical world of motorsport. The A110 is not a foregone conclusion, but like Lotus manages to get inside you and create a visceral need to stay at the helm and drive some more. This is how SD cards are filled and while everyone here alternate in the passenger seat, each revealing the same impressions and sensations of the one before. I decide to take a moment for myself and pull over a few meters from the bigger fort. Leaving the engine idling in order to allow the turbo to cool down – I get out of the car and dive into this fantastic piece of the world, a natural playground in which man ventures for a few weeks a year, being unable to do anything against the harsh cold of the winter, where the mountains, the ruins, the forts and especially the road will all be inexorably covered by a soft white mantle.

The sudden awakening of a morning that began in complete rush, the hope that the weather conditions would change as soon as possible and the eyes in constant and frenetic search for a compromise between the focus necessary to face such a road and the need to capture images that were well imprinted in my mind, after having attacked this mountain pass just a couple of weeks earlier during our “Tour delle Alpi” and that unforgettable autumn climb taking place last year, where thanks to a Maserati GranTurismo we awakened the entire valley. It almost seems to hear that V8 echo, as if the noises and emotions are crystallized and could be collected exactly where we left them. If this were really the case, I am sure that when I’ll return I will also find the 1.8 turbo puff of the A110 and the screeching of its tires through corners faced with the knowledge that days like these – at least this year – are rare stuff. Just like cars like the new Alpine, fun and instantly addictive, stunning you in just a few turns, reminding that after all we are simple creatures always craving for stronger emotions. Until the next climb.