Along with revealing two further versions of its A110 road car, Alpine has unveiled a GT4 racer.
Alpine developed the car with its motorsport partner Signatech, the team that runs Alpine’s LMP2 car in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Like any other GT4 racing car, it’s very closely related to the road car on which it’s based.
For the most part, the car is unchanged. In order to deal with the rigors of motorsport, Signatech fits racing springs and dampers, a sequential gearbox, and Brembo competition brakes. The A110 GT4 also gets racing tires and reworked front splitter and rear wing. Last, but not least, is a safety cage, racing seat and harness, and a fire extinguisher system.
The GT4 shares the production road car’s 1.8-liter four-cylinder petrol engine. In standard form that’s good for 249hp, but the engine in the race car has “significant power upgrades”. Alpine isn’t any more specific than that, but the car should hit the maximum power-to-weight ratio for the GT4 class of 312hp/tonne.
Signatech and Alpine will produce a small number of these GT4s during 2018. They’ll be eligible for competitions like the SRO European GT4 Series and the Spa 24 Hours. Following the 2018 season, Alpine plans a larger production run ahead of 2019 for customer use.
Alpine already produces a Cup car based on the A110. It runs a one-make series — the Alpine Europa Cup — for enthusiasts to pick up one of these $125,000 race-prepped cars and enjoy amateur competition. Signatech will offer these customers the chance to upgrade their cars to GT4 spec with a component package.
Michael van der Sande, Alpine’s managing director, said:
“Alpine made its name by competing against other car makers and the new A110 GT4 by Signatech will see us return to that arena. I’m confident the car will be competitive; our ambition is for it to win races and championships.
“Now, amateur competitors can race with us in the Alpine Cup in a friendly and relaxed environment before upgrading their cars and tackling the highly-competitive GT4 series.”
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