Alpine just turned the A110 into a high-riding two-door coupe
Go skiing in the alps with the Alpine A110 Sports X
by Marcus De GuzmanSports cars on the road are not exactly the most practical of vehicles. Aside from the fact that most can only seat two, sports cars don't have generous luggage space, and lack the ability to haul heavy cargo.
So what's the next best thing? Get a crossover (or SUV), slap on a high-performance engine under the hood, put two or three rows of seats, and call it a day. For some, however, a high-performance SUV / crossover just doesn't cut it.
French sports car maker Alpine may have just the solution to that conundrum. This is the A110 SportsX, a highly-modified mid-engine sports car that has been turned into a high-riding ski carrier. Taking inspiration from the rally versions of the original A110, the Sports X is the result of a collaboration of Alpine's design and engineering teams.
Unlike the standard A110, the Sports X comes with a jacked-up suspension which gives the sports car an additional 60mm of ground clearance. Meanwhile, the wide wheel arches have made the car wider by 80mm. This allows the Sports X to roll on bigger wheels & tires. To top everything off, the high-riding sports car comes with a ski rack.
Based on the Pure variant of the A110, the Sports X doles out 252 PS and 320 Nm of torque from a 1.8-liter turbocharged inline-four. Power is then sent to the rear wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. Alpine did not release the Sports X's 0 – 100 km/h sprint nor its top speed, but the automaker did claim that the high-riding two-door remains faithful to Alpine's DNA.
Will the A110 Sports X be made into a production car? Sadly Alpine stated that they do not plan on selling a version of this to the public. At least Alpine was bold enough to actually try and make something out of their radical sports car. Perhaps some owners might try to do a version of theirs should they be brave enough to actually modify their A110.