Alpine fresh: Majorette Alpine A110 R (and guest)

(Find the Majorette Alpine A310 on eBay here and click here for the Solido 1:18 Alpine selection)

There’s certain cars that give me that James May “fizz” just looking at them. The Alpine A110 is one of them. I get a child-like excitement when I see one, often accompanied by a form of automotive Tourettes that makes me point and go “ooh, Alpine!”

So when one of my all time favourite diecast brands dropped these two recently, there were no second thoughts. I knew they needed the Lamley spotlight.

Alpine’s re-birth in 2017 bought back one of the biggest names in motorsport and with it the revival of a legendary model: the A110.

The original A110 was produced between 1963 and 1977 and made the Alpine brand a legendary name thanks to a string of rallying successes. A revival of the A110 had been toyed with for years by parent company Renault and some concepts were produced but quietly disappeared soon after. The seeds of the new A110 were sewn in these early studies however and in 2016 the Alpine Vision concept was revealed in Monte Carlo. The virtually identical production car arrived a year later at the brand relaunch at the 87th Geneva Motor Show.

And the new A110 has proved to be an incredibly capable sports car. Accolades from the motoring press arrived fast and deservedly so. The low kerb weight of  just over 1100kg means the 250bhp provided by the Nissan sourced, 1.8 litre turbocharged Inline-four is more than adequate. The focus with the A110 isn’t about power and top speed figures, but on handling and driver feedback. And considering Gordon Murray is an A110 fan I’d say the folks at Dieppe have done a very good job indeed.

The A110 R is an even more concentrated version using utilising the engine from the A110 S (fitted with a larger turbocharger upping power to 290bhp) and generous use of carbon fibre parts to bring weight down to 1082kg. There’s also an improved suspension set up with adjustable shocks, uprated Brembo brakes, and a new Akrapovic exhaust system. There’s exterior tweaks too with a re-designed bodykit featuring a rear spoiler, carbon fibre bonnet and splitters. And the electronic straight jacket pinning the top speed back is now removed, allowing the R to hit 177mph.

I first saw Majorette’s A110 R back in April at the firm’s influencer event and I was immediately excited.

Since then, the firm have made tweaks to the casting, changing the wheels and altering the paint to reflect Alpine’s “Matt Racing Blue”. And in typical Majorette fashion, it’s a high quality finish.

The wheels also better reflect the 18 inch “GT Race” alloys fitted to the real thing, though I have to say I’m more of a fan of the 8-Spoke alloys fitted to the prototype!

There’s a separately moulded rear spoiler, clear front lights and Majorette fixtures of working suspension and opening parts. Here doors open to reveal a lightly detailed interior.

Majorette have also replicated the A110s used by France’s Gendarmerie, and I’m seriously fond of this one. As I am of other fast law enforcement and police vehicles replicated in diecast. This one still uses the same A110 R script on the base, but replicates the A110 in standard guise.

The Gendarmerie are the law enforcement agency in charge of small towns and rural areas in France, with the Police Nationale taking care of the bigger urban areas and cities. In 2021 they signed a deal with Alpine to provide 26 A110 police cars, continuing a relationship with Alpine that has lasted over 50 years.

The A110s are used by the Gendarmerie’s “Rapid Intervention” teams and (according to the French Ministry of the Interior) help to “enable law enforcement to carry out interventions on motorways involving cars breaking the rules at high speed, as part of road safety or judicial police missions.” In other words: chasing bad guys in fast cars. The first two units to receive their A110s were the Châteauroux and Salon-de-Provence forces and the Alpine has been a valuable tool for the “Maréchaussée” ever since.

This is a very neat model in my eyes, and my favourite of the two.

In what I can only assume is a cost saving measure, the paint doesn’t match the shade of blue worn by the real cars, an Alpine colour known as “Abyss Blue”. But in a roundabout sort of way it is still faithful to the real car. The Gendarmerie have in the past specified their Alpines in special paint finishes not available to the public. This time around they chose a normal finish in an effort to keep costs as low as possible, so I guess Majorette have been as accurate as possible here!

The wheel choice will be completely Marmite on this car. For the non-UK readers, put simply it means you’ll either love them or hate them. And I’m in the camp of the former. These wheels do not work on a lot of Majorette castings. At all. And the brand does need to some serious catching up still in this area. But these wheels seem to suit the casting, colour and livery really rather well.

It’s also a neat throwback to a piece of Majorette history; the brand have replicated a Gendarmerie Alpine before, in the shape of the A310 that was a fixture of the line up between 1979 and 1985. And at this point I must thank my wonderful friends Marc and Damian from the Majorette France and Majorette Australasia pages for the photographs below.

The two new Alpines make a very neat pair and the Gendarmerie version will very likely resurface in my best of 2024, I really do covet it that much. Shooting these also gave me a great excuse to bring out my 1:18 Solido A110 R Le Mans, which is just a fabulous model all round.

For a casual 1:18 collector Solido offer brilliant bang for buck in my opinion, and this is one of my favourite recent releases.

This isn’t the time nor really the place to review a 1:18, but rest assured if you’re an Alpine fan: Majorette and Solido have you covered.

Instagram: @alex_the_hoarder

Facebook: facebook.com/alexthehoarder

Reddit: u/alexthehoarder

YouTube: Alex_the_Hoarder