The Alpine A110 Légende GT is half way to an S

It’s a special edition and it uses all-familiar ingredients, but the recipe promises to be worth trying, combining the 292PS (218kW) power of the sportiest A110S with the GT comfort of the Légende GT.

Having your cake and eating it, Alpine style, comes at a cost – £61,655 – and the firm says production will be limited to 300 editions for Europe. There’s a bit of extra weight to haul around too, but it’s only 20kg up on the S and at 1,134kg the two-seat coupe still ranks as an admirable featherweight.

France’s mid-engined rival for the Porsche Cayman uses the same engine as before, a 1.8-litre turbo four-cylinder, but the extra poke sees the 0-62mph time come in at 4.4 seconds, just slightly quicker than the regular 252PS (185kW) A110 Legende. The new limited-edition model also inherits the S’s sports exhaust and high-performance braking system.

What you don’t get are the S’s suspension mods: the stiffer coil springs, beefier anti-roll bars and retuned dampers that put the emphasis on track driving over touring. Ride and handling thus should retain the comfort and fun element that have made the A110 a five-star car for drivers since its introduction. For Alpine, the A110 Légende GT 2021 offers “an entirely new blend of comfort and performance”.

Underlining that is the inevitable raft of colour and trim updates along with an enhanced equipment list. There are just two design themes to choose from: Mercury Silver matt paint with sports seats in black leather with contrasting grey stitching; and Abyss Blue exterior with Amber Brown leather comfort seats. Either version gets 18-inch diamond cut alloy wheels and gold-coloured brake calipers, translucent LED rear lights and, inside, Dinamica headliner and gloss carbon-fibre trim elements. Oh, and a plate bearing the edition number.