Ultime edition takes 20 seconds off Alpine A110 R’s ’Ring time

14th February 2025

Adam Wilkins

There’s every chance the Alpine A110 R Ultime will be the French company’s final car with an internal combustion engine, so you can understand why everything has been thrown at it. We always admired the attention to detail apparent in the cooking car; now every aspect has been reassessed and redeveloped to maximise performance. Faster, even lighter and now more exclusive, it’s Ultime by name and by nature.

Alpine said its team worked as a small ‘commando’ team that adopted the stance of a racing team to hone the A110 R for its swansong edition. Initially the Ultime was conceived as a concept with no intention of production, which is why things have been allowed to get to the stage where the retail price is north of £200,000.

You have to admire the hang-the-business-case approach and hope that Alpine can find enough buyers to sell the proposed 110 units. Such hubris deserves to be rewarded with success.

The most apparent changes are visual. A comprehensive aero package includes a front splitter, canards on front bumper, fins on the rear bumper and triumvirate of addenda at the back that includes a spoiler, bi-plane wing and ducktail. It all adds up to a maximum 160kg of downforce. Alpine’s time in GT4 racing has clearly been well spent.

Under the skin you’ll find two-way adjustable Öhlins TTX dampers with height adjustability and new brakes. They’re housed in new lightweight forged alloys (18-inch at the front and 19-inch at the rear) which in turn are shod with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres designed for the Alpine.

Taking their race ethic further, Alpine delved into the four-cylinder engine to fit forged pistons and new connecting rods, while the turbo has a rebored casting and a revise compressor wheel. The result is 329PS (241kW) peaking at 6,000rpm when run on regular 90 RON unleaded. Feed it 102 RON, though, and you can release another 20PS (14kW). Torque is up by 80Nm to 420Nm at 3,200rpm. A new DCT-6 gearbox has been recruited to handle the extra power.

It was on a diet of the good stuff that the A110 R Ultime set a Nürburgring lap time a staggering 20 seconds faster than its R stablemate. That means it lapped in 7 minutes and 15 seconds. For context, that’s faster than a 991-generation Porsche 911 Turbo S. The A110 has always punched above its weight, but not like this. It goes some way to justifying that lofty price tag.

As does the exclusivity Alpine promises. Atelier Sur-Mesure (which translates to Tailor-Made Workshop) is Alpine’s way of allowing customers to make their cars bespoke. With a choice of 28 body colours, 14 Alcantara shades and ten leather options it’s likely that no two Ultimes will be identical. There will be 30 finished in Le Bleue, which fades Alpine Vision Blue into Abysse Blue.

Hang the list price. If this really is the last petrol Alpine, the era is going out with a bang and we’re here for it.