Alpine A110 Cup race car revealed for one-make series

Alpine has revealed a racing version of its upcoming A110 sports car.

Costing approximately £90,000, the A110 Cup is a lightened, more powerful version of the road-going car, and will compete in a single-make series from next year.

The French car manufacturer has a long history of success in motorsport, most recently winning the LMP2 class in last season’s World Endurance Championship.

Now the brand has launched the Alpine Europa Cup, in which it will race a modified version of its forthcoming production model. The road car’s 1.8-litre turbocharged engine has had a 17bhp hike in power to 266bhp, while torque remains the same at 320Nm.

The gearbox is a race-spec six-speed sequential unit, which comes with a limited-slip differential to help put power into the road.

Elsewhere, the chassis has been adapted to allow a roll cage to be fitted, while the interior has been gutted in the name of saving weight. The ride height has been dropped 40mm and stickier tyres have been fitted.

Bernard Ollivier, Alpine deputy managing director, said: “The fact we have created the Alpine A110 Cup and a dedicated competition in which they will compete, the Alpine Europa Cup, is yet further evidence of our love of motor racing.

“We wanted the A110 Cup to be a genuine race car, a particularly refined machine equipped with high-end features geared towards performance.”

The Alpine Europa Cup series starts in June 2018 at Circuit Paul Ricard and will comprise 12 races at six venues.