Alpine A120’s interior leaked

French car blog Auto-mot.com has somehow unearthed what looks like the first glimpse of the upcoming Alpine A120’s interior ahead of its official unveiling next week on February 16.

The single image of the brand’s first car since the A610 went out of production back in 1995 suggests the new A120 will have a stylish, stripped-back interior reminiscent of the current Audi TT.

Unfortunately, fuelling debate on internet forums is the lack of a traditional manual gear-shifter, hinting that when the A120 finally goes on sale it might -- like the current Clio RS -- only be offered with a dual-clutch automatic transmission.

The good news is, lack of manual aside, the new Gallic sports car is rumoured to weigh less than 1100kg and be powered by a new mid-mounted turbocharged 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that will generate as much as 225kW.

Sending power to the rear wheels, the dual-clutch gearbox is likely to be the seven-speed transmission that was developed for the Europe-only Talisman sedan.

Originally, the Alpine sports car was to have been co-developed with British sports car-maker Caterham, but ties were severed in 2014 — two years into the technical partnership — for unknown reasons but thought to involve an internal dispute over development costs.

Priced at around an estimated $75,000, the born-again Alpine coupe has been created for performance car “purists” so should be a natural rival for the Porsche Cayman and Alfa Romeo 4C.