THE fabulous Alpine A110 is the sort of sports car you get when you think a Porsche Cayman is too flabby, writes William Scholes.
It's a fabulous device, a car you wear as much as sit in. There's something of a Mazda MX-5 on steroids about its fun-to-drive, low-of-weight focus.
You won't see many of them in Northern Ireland, more's the pity, which means this new limited edition Légende GT model will be of unicorn-level rarity on the Westlink and A5.
It is priced from a not-inconsiderable £61,655 and the French company - which is Renault's performance wing - is building just 300 examples for the whole of Europe.
The car's mid-mounted 1.8-litre engine serves up 288bhp and 236lb ft. That may not sound a huge amount these days, considering most serious hot hatches at least match that these days, but it's plenty to punt the lightweight A110 along.
There's a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and the little Légende GT does the 0-62mph sprint in 4.4 seconds.
You can have this model in one of two colour schemes.
The first uses a 'mercury silver' matte exterior paint, combined with black leather bucket seats finished with contrast grey stitching.
The second is finished in 'abyss blue' paint and gets brown leather bucket seats.
Both get pale gold Alpine badges and 18-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels, behind which sit gold brake calipers.
Other enhancements include gloss carbon fibre elements with an eye-catching copper weave on the centre console, dashboard visor and air vents.
A plaque showcases the build number of the vehicle.
A reversing camera and parking sensors are standard; this, however, is a car you will want to drive rather than leave parked...
