Big interview / Paris
Driving ambition
A motorsports staple in the postwar decades, iconic French automaker Alpine has returned to our roads as a purveyor of lightweight sports cars. Now it’s revving up for a sustainable future.
Waiting at a red light is a rather dull occasion – but not if you’re at the wheel of an Alpine a110 R and it happens to be playtime for the children in a nearby schoolyard. Then it becomes a moment of happy pandemonium, as excited faces swarm the fences and thrilled shrieks fill the air. As monocle experienced on a recent drive just outside Paris, little can diminish the thrill of driving this diminutive sports car.
Alpine has been part of Renault since 1973 and is best known for its achievements in 1960s and 1970s motor racing. After…
