French manufacturer, Alpine, has revealed the 300bhp, 177mph A110 R Le Mans Limited Series… and it doesn’t come cheap
Today, Alpine finally revealed the A110 R Le Mans limited series it previewed earlier this week – now though, we can see the entire thing. However, before we delve into the design, you of course want the headline figures.
Fine, so the Le Mans is based on the already bonkers A110 R, which itself has 300bhp, a top speed of 177 mph and a 0-60 time of a smidge under 4 seconds (3.9 to be exact). However, with some exuberant use of carbon fibre, Alpine have shaved off 68kg of weight. The standard R tips the scales at 1,150kg, whereas the Le Mans is a featherweight at 1,082kg. Impressive stuff.
The car stems from a celebration of the centenary of the (now) 24 hour road race. It’s a race that Alpine has been involved in since ’60s and taking that famous victory of the A442 in 1978. Alpine stepped up its endurance racing with Signatech in LMP2 and then LMP1 and is now looking to the future by taking on the new LMDh Hypercar category from 2024.
Anyway, back to car. As you can probably tell, carbon is used extensively, form the roof, to the splitter, to the wing and even the wheels. Granted those bits are used on the existing A110 R, but these ones have a blue stripe on them – which always makes a car look better, trust us.
On the inside, you have the quintessential Alpine styling but with the carbon-backed Sabelt bucket seats and racing harness as standard. Not too much has been changed in here – as the real difference is that the car is 5% stiffer than the ‘standard’ R meaning that ‘this technical development, coupled with a specific suspension setting, enhances performance on the long Mulsanne straight and in the fast corners of the 24-Hours circuit.’ Apparently.
However, with only 100 units becoming available and no doubt a selection process to get one, the Alpine A110 R Le Mans does not come cheap. Like, at all. This thing costs €140,000 (£120,000). Gone are the days when an Alpine was a semi attainable car for those who enjoyed a morning B-Road blast.
Still, we wouldn’t say no to one…
