Alpine reveals A110 R Le Mans edition

Ahead of this year’s centennial 24 Hours of Le Mans, Alpine unveiled a special edition of their A110 sports coupe – the A110 R Le Mans - at the same time as 100 invited Alpine owners drove their cars on the famous French circuit.

Alpine describe the A110 R Le Mans as a new chapter in the long association between their brand and the annual 24 Hour motorsport event. While racing has been a hallmark of Alpine since its foundation by Jean Rédélé in 1955, the marque didn’t actually compete at Le Mans until 1963. To date, the peak of Alpine’s involvement in the twice-around-the-clock marathon was victory for the A442 in 1978. More recently, Alpine has had a presence in LMP2 and LMP1, and will move to the LMDh Hypercar category next year.

This isn’t the first time Alpine has offered a Le Mans edition, with the name applied to a limited-edition version of the GTA in 1990. Defined by a model-specific bodykit and wheels, the GTA Le Mans looked fast, but actually had less power than the car it was based on, due to emissions regulations.

The modern A110 R Le Mans is based on the extant A110 R and features the same drivetrain from that model; namely a turbocharged 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, producing unchanged maximums of 221kW and 340Nm, with a 0-100km/h time of 3.9 seconds. The carbon fibre wheels, bonnet, roof panel, rear wing and interior detailing from the A110 R also carry over to the Le Mans edition.

Inside, Sabelt Track carbon fibre bucket seats and harnesses are added, but the bigger change is under the skin in the form of Alpine’s patented ‘Road & Track’ chassis set-up. This lowers and stiffens the car by a claimed 5 per cent “for even better stability on the track” and is complemented by a specific tune of the A110 R suspension.

Cosmetic touches on the A110 R Le Mans include a carbon fibre sharkfin on the rear window, referencing Alpine’s current A480 endurance racer, and an exclusive ‘24 Heures de Mans’ livery in white with blue accents. A thin double blue line runs over the bonnet, roof and rear spoiler. The spoiler’s end plates are also finished in blue, with blue brake calipers and blue piping on the carbon wheels.

All exterior badging is finished in blue, with ‘Le Mans’ identification added to the front guards and the official 24 Hours of Le Mans logo on the carbon sills. The same logo is also embroidered into the seat’s headrests, while the Le Mans track layout is laser-etched into the sunvisors.

The 2023 Alpine A110 R Le Mans will be limited to 100 units, all of which will carry an individually numbered console plaque with the official 24 Hours of Le Mans logo.

Alpine withdrew from the Australian market in 2021 due to the A110 being unable to meet local side-impact protection requirements. The tiny numbers of A110s sold here (the best sales year was 35 in 2019) meant re-engineering the cars to meet local regs was uneconomical. As such, the A110 R Le Mans will not be offered in Australia.

European pricing for the A110 R Le Mans is listed at 140,000 Euros (AU$235,000 approx.), which is around 30 per cent more than the A110 R it’s based on.