Faster, lighter Alpine A110 to debut at Le Mans

An ultra-lightweight, faster version of the Alpine A110 has been teased ahead of the more hardcore mid-engine coupe's launch at the Le Mans 24 Hour next weekend.

Previewed by an image of the container it will crack open on June 16, Renault's performance standalone brand has released no other details about the faster Alpine A110 other than a caption "coming soon, stay tuned..."

Luckily, as motoring.com.au revealed back in December 2017, we already know how Alpine plans to make its A110 faster.

Back then, engineers told us that squeezing more power out of the coupe's 185kW 1.8-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder wasn't an issue.

He wasn't kidding, the latest Megane RS Trophy produces a punchy 220kW and 420Nm – but what is an issue is the smaller coupe's uses a different transmission to the hatch and the compact dual-clutch seven-speed transmission is "near its limit" coping with the A110's modest 320Nm torque peak.

That means, instead of boosting power, our insider said faster variants would shed weight to extract extra performance from the French Porsche 718 Cayman-rival.

This would involve the addition of lighter carbon-fibre body panels in place of the standard car's already light aluminium sheet metal.

The roof panel, for example, has been engineered to be interchangeable with a carbon-fibre part, while a lighter bonnet and boot lid were all confirmed to be in the works.

Finally, a stripped out interior and full titanium exhaust should see a weight saving of at least 50kg over the current car and see the total kerbweight (with fluids) fall to around 1030kg.

Expect the standard A110's 0-100km/h time fall to 4.0 seconds – 0.5sec quicker than the standard car.

Throwing the current car's supple ride out of the window, the more focused Alpine A110 is set to come with stiffer retuned sports suspension.

Adding a limited-slip differential is likely to still be off the cards because of the weight penalty, but could become an option.

Back at the launch it was rumoured the faster Alpine would carry the badge 'A110S' or 'A110 Sport' and be priced around 10 per cent more than the base car.