Alpine A110 R review

Apparently, this is an important car for The Intercooler. My boss, a normally placid cove, sent instructions in triplicate e fortississimo.

‘The previous model is a ten out of ten car,’ the briefing began… I wilted.

Then there was the launch itself at the fabled Circuito del Jarama designed by John Hugenholtz, the Dutch circuit designer with truly weird hair, who also numbered Suzuka in his plan chest. This is the drivers’ circuit, a 2.4-mile upsey-downsey corner fest connected with a long, long pit straight. It opened in 1967 and hosted Formula 1 Grands Prix between 1969 and 1988.

‘Tight, difficult and demanding,’ was Murray Walker’s assessment in 1981 when Jacques Laffite stuck his Talbot Matra on pole, but was (with everyone else) comprehensively outdriven by Gilles Villeneuve in his slower, poor-handling Ferrari. Amongst others, Alain Prost, Alan Jones and Didier Pironi ended up parked in the sand traps. ‘One of the finest drives I have seen in Grand Prix racing,’ concluded Muddly Talker.