Post by Ben on Aug 25, 2019 14:42:22 GMT
I'm surprised that there has been so little interest on this, especially among the keener drivers among you guys.
In any case, I had one this weekend, and here's some brief thoughts.
The Good
What can I say, it's brilliant. Absolutely amazing to drive.
It's more refined than a Lotus Elise or Alfa 4C, and yet (I dare say it) sharper and more focused than a Boxster/Cayman. It's sensational how Alpine has managed to get the formula just right in my view, and it goes straight to the top of my list for fun cars in my dream garage.
Everything is so precise, so direct, so well-sorted and balanced. And yet somehow it never feels uncomfortable. It can get a little bit unsettled if you hit a large bump at high speed, but otherwise the suspension is set up extremely well for most roads.
The engine loves to rev, but even at regular pace the car feels exciting and exhilarating to pilot. There's very few cars in recent times that I can remember feeling like that. BMW M2 comes to mind maybe.
It's also surprisingly frugal. I'm getting about 8.6 litres per 100km, or 32 mpg in UK speak.
There's also a crazy amount of geekery. Look at all these available telemetry data for you to play with.
The Bad
Very few things really. The obvious one would be visibility, given that it is after all a very low mid-engined sports car.
This is all you see out of your rear view mirror:
Because the rear window is tiny:
Reversing is therefore tricky, and you end up depending on the reverse camera (located in the instrument panel) far more than you like.
Also, given that you're very low and close to the road, you're almost effectively blind to other traffic. It's obviously an issue with all cars of its type, but if, let's say you're parked either side of an SUV (or indeed any modern car these days), you can't see anything that's coming across from your 'blind' side, as I found out when I nearly hit a passing Polo when I was pulling out of a parking lot.
There are other small niggles like storage (okay but not plentiful) and the seat that adjusts only fore and aft (not that big an issue actually), but those are to be expected for a car of this type.
Other than that, it is damn near perfect. I'll have this over a Boxster any day.
In any case, I had one this weekend, and here's some brief thoughts.
The Good
What can I say, it's brilliant. Absolutely amazing to drive.
It's more refined than a Lotus Elise or Alfa 4C, and yet (I dare say it) sharper and more focused than a Boxster/Cayman. It's sensational how Alpine has managed to get the formula just right in my view, and it goes straight to the top of my list for fun cars in my dream garage.
Everything is so precise, so direct, so well-sorted and balanced. And yet somehow it never feels uncomfortable. It can get a little bit unsettled if you hit a large bump at high speed, but otherwise the suspension is set up extremely well for most roads.
The engine loves to rev, but even at regular pace the car feels exciting and exhilarating to pilot. There's very few cars in recent times that I can remember feeling like that. BMW M2 comes to mind maybe.
It's also surprisingly frugal. I'm getting about 8.6 litres per 100km, or 32 mpg in UK speak.
There's also a crazy amount of geekery. Look at all these available telemetry data for you to play with.
The Bad
Very few things really. The obvious one would be visibility, given that it is after all a very low mid-engined sports car.
This is all you see out of your rear view mirror:
Because the rear window is tiny:
Reversing is therefore tricky, and you end up depending on the reverse camera (located in the instrument panel) far more than you like.
Also, given that you're very low and close to the road, you're almost effectively blind to other traffic. It's obviously an issue with all cars of its type, but if, let's say you're parked either side of an SUV (or indeed any modern car these days), you can't see anything that's coming across from your 'blind' side, as I found out when I nearly hit a passing Polo when I was pulling out of a parking lot.
There are other small niggles like storage (okay but not plentiful) and the seat that adjusts only fore and aft (not that big an issue actually), but those are to be expected for a car of this type.
Other than that, it is damn near perfect. I'll have this over a Boxster any day.
