Alpine A110 R Ultime review – Ferrari money for a four-cylinder, but it might be worth it
The A110 goes out with a 340bhp bang in the shape of the highly tuned, hardcore R Ultime. It costs an absurd £235k, but offers a driving experience like nothing else
It’s not often that a car becomes an icon within its own lifetime, but that’s exactly what’s happened with the Alpine A110. From the moment it appeared in 2017 we knew it was a sports car made of the right stuff, being all about low mass, simplicity and doing more with less. To drive, it was a breath of fresh air. It was also a genuine rival to Porsche’s now departed Cayman, and as more powerful and extreme versions appeared over the years, the A110 became a sports car to cover all bases, from the B660 to Spa. It bows out of production this year to make way for an electric replacement, but before that there’s the A110 R Ultime – a 340bhp, ultra-focused send-off.
As the name suggests, this version of the A110 is both the final iteration and the most extreme development of the core concept. Engineers were given free rein to give the A110 a nose-to-tail motorsport-inspired makeover, and the result is an uncompromising mid-engined sports car designed for the track, without making concessions to usability or refinement. In other words, the opposite of the primarily road-focused standard A110, and a natural bookend to the range.
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The price is absurd – around £235k – but trust us when we say that the Ultime delivers a driving experience on a level with a 911 GT3, permeated with intensity and focus. It’s one of the most exciting cars on sale, and a fitting finale to the current A110’s story.
Engine, gearbox and technical highlights
- Dramatic mechanical modifications, including a more powerful engine, Ohlins suspension and even a new transmission
- Up to 340bhp on 102-octane fuel
- 160kg more downforce than the A110 R, with perfect front-to-rear balance
Compared to the A110 R, the story is as follows: 340bhp and 310lb ft of torque, meaning useful hikes of 44bhp and 59lb ft respectively. The 0-62mph time has dropped by just a tenth to 3.8 seconds and the top speed has remained the same at 177mph.
The power uplift comes from internals taken from the GT4 race car, with new forged pistons and new con-rods, as well as a new turbo, a titanium Akrapovic exhaust and revised ECU tuning. Powerflex motorsport-spec bushings mount the uprated engine to the chassis.
To achieve the maximum 340bhp, the motor is designed to run on 102-octane fuel (it’s limited to 321bhp if you run it on 98 RON). To cope with the extra torque, the gearbox had to be swapped for a stronger six-speed dual-clutch with a new limited-slip diff, which in turn required a new rear subframe and fresh homologation, including crash testing.
As with the drivetrain, the chassis has come in for a thorough reworking. The bespoke forged wheels from Fondmetal are 10mm wider at the front and the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres are bespoke too. Ohlins TTX dampers with 20 clicks of compression and rebound adjustment have replaced the standard ZF items and there are also new, stiffer anti-roll bars.
The R’s Brembo brakes, meanwhile, have been swapped for larger 330mm AP Racing items with high-performance pads. Making the most of this new hardware is the Ultime’s lack of mass (it weighs the same as the R at 1082kg) and an upgraded aero package. Thanks to additions such as the enormous ducts where the front boot used to be and the bi-plane rear wing, the Ultime not only generates 160kg more downforce, but is the first A110 to have perfect front/rear aero balance.
Driver’s note
‘It's a car with real magic but, even leaving price out of the equation, it’s a strong flavour. And one that’s travelled further away from the base A110 recipe. You could choose to have a regular A110 and an Ultime in a two-car garage, so distinct are their characters. Many customers will.’ – James Taylor, evo Deputy Editor, who tested the Alpine A110 R Ultime on the road in France
Performance, ride and handling
- Base car’s calmness is replaced with addictive, raw aggression
- New limited-slip diff and extra power bring new-found playfulness to the A110’s handling
- Staggering braking performance and feel
You feel the effect of those dramatic changes from the moment you get behind the wheel. The angular bucket seats might be the same as in the R, but when you press the starter button the whole car fizzes to a busy idle. It feels like you or I might if we doubled our caffeine intake, the jitteriness and noise giving a sense of something highly strung and alert even while it’s sitting still.
Set off and, although the vibrations settle with more revs, it’s still an angry little engine. For all its new internals, the gruff, 1.8-litre four-cylinder isn’t something to make your heart sing, but it is aggressive in both sound and performance. The gearshifts are much more aggressive, too, and the paddles behind the wheel have been elongated significantly, which makes a nice tactile difference.
The wired character continues with the alertness present in the steering, the whole car immediately feeling tighter, more tenacious and edgier when you turn into the first bends. It still rides well but it’s noticeably firmer and clings where the R merely held.
Initially it feels like the Ultime is chastising you every time you enter a corner with anything less than full commitment. You’re building significant lateral g, squeezing your hip into the side of the seat, yet you know there is still more potential in the bespoke Cup 2 rubber. The nose feels absolutely locked down through quicker curves and you can actually steer with the throttle on the exit of tighter ones. Find a good, well-sighted sequence and you’ll find yourself holding your breath as you carry huge speed into the first bend and then simply maintain momentum as you slalom left and right. It’s intoxicating.
And if the cornering is mesmerising, the braking is almost head-scrambling. With so little weight, more aero load and the upgraded AP Racing stoppers, the Ultime glues itself to the road and sheds speed like a ripcord pulled in a hurricane.
It’s the sort of car where you’re glad of the full six-point harness. You might initially think it an affectation or just a nuisance, but soon you find yourself tightening the wide Sabelt straps as much as you can, so that you feel welded to the car and you move as one rather than being a fraction behind as you shift in the seat.
To that extent, it makes you yearn for a track or, even better, a tarmac rally stage, as it feels like a car that wants to go searching for tenths. An R will let you back off and still have a good time, whereas the Ultime never relaxes and always seems to be asking for more commitment. It is unashamedly extreme, and we could understand if plenty of people drove both the R (or even the standard A110) and the Ultime and preferred the former. However, it is also absolutely wonderful that it exists.
Given how much has changed, it’s no wonder that the engineers kept having to go back to Philippe Krief (CEO at Alpine) to ask for more budget, and you can sense the passion that has been poured into the project. As such, it really is a fitting send-off for the wonderful A110, a car that was born out of such engineering enthusiasm and expertise. The Ultime lives up to both meanings of its name.
Driver’s note
‘You can easily get the Ultime moving on the throttle out of corners, where the standard car is more about working with momentum and weight transfer. The added power and limited-slip diff give the driving experience another dimension, allowing you to hold neat and controllable slides.’ – Yousuf Ashraf, evo Senior Staff Writer, who tested the Alpine A110 R Ultime on the road in France
evo Car of the Year 2025 – result
There was cautious optimism about the Ultime going into our 2025 Car of the Year test. The idea of a last-of-the-line, no-holds-barred A110 is mouthwatering, but so ambitious is the Ultime that you naturally approach it with big questions in your mind: Is a nose-to-tail hardcore makeover what the pure A110 really needs? Can it move the game on from the already extreme A110 R? And most of all, does it have any hope of doing its outrageous £235k asking price justice? Amazingly, the answer to each of these questions is yes.
From the word go, you can sense how much attention has been lavished on the Ultime. It feels like a true road-racer, from the way the engine buzzes on its motorsport mounts to the more connected suspension and incredible feel and power from the brakes. Where the standard A110 is effortless and fluid across the ground, the Ultime has a much more aggressive edge, and the real rewards come when you push harder. The key is that despite all the extra performance and grip, you never feel like a bystander, the Ultime putting you intimately in touch with how it’s taking on the road beneath you. It’s a unique thrill.
The only downside of the new-found focus was a smaller sweet spot than with some of the eleven other Car of the Year contenders, which is why it didn’t make the top half of judge John Barker’s order. ‘The ride is not firm as such, but it’s definitely more controlled,’ he said. ‘There’s less of that magical compliance that characterises the ride of the standard A110.’
But when the stars aligned, the appeal was even greater for most of our judges. ‘I feared the Ultime would take the beautifully simple A110 and prove that more doesn’t equate to more,’ said Dickie Meaden. ‘But the essence of the car remains, just with the character amplified to the max. I love it.’
Henry Catchpole wondered whether the Ultime had lost some of the R’s bandwidth when not pushing at ten-tenths, but found it bewitching at full attack. ‘Through a set of well-sighted corners in one particular valley, the Ultime was mesmerising. I belted in as tightly as possible and really felt like I wanted to hold my breath for the length of the sequence. There’s this magic feeling of connection with the tyres beneath you.’
The A110 in other guises has been runner-up at eCoty on two previous occasions, and while the Ultime didn’t get the big prize, it’s the most intense and memorable expression of what the A110 – and lightweight sports cars as a whole – are all about. What a way to bow out.
Price and rivals
It seems impossible to understand the Ultime in rational terms. £235k is an absurd amount of money for an A110 and puts it in the firing line of Porsche’s top-flight GT models, but at the same time, it’s one of the most immersive and unashamedly raw sports cars on sale. You won’t find this particular flavour of road-going track car anywhere else.
Porsche hasn’t unveiled its 992.2-generation GT3 RS yet, but for similar money to the Ultime you can bag a pre-facelift example with just a handful of miles on the clock. More conventional and less track-focused supercars such as the McLaren Artura and Maserati MC20 are also available at this level, as well as lightly used Ferrari 296 GTBs.
The Dallara Stradale is even lighter and more powerful than the Alpine and also fit for circuit work, and for something exclusively for trackdays, purpose-built machinery from the likes of Revolution or Radical are within budget too.
