Then and Now: Alpine A110, the Rally Berlinette and the Modern One

Good morning, all, Hattie here, and I've had my Christmas orders. Tom sent me a photo last night of Alfie's list, in felt tip. Number one: a model of 'the little blue French rally car', which he found in one of my old charity-shop magazines. Number two, underlined twice: the go-kart I promised him. No wriggling out of that now.

So for episode eight of the Vertar Show, on this Sunday the fifteenth, Alfie's little blue car gets the whole feature. It's Then and Now: the Alpine A110, old and new.

The original's the Berlinette. Tiny, low, a Renault four-cylinder hanging out the back, about six hundred and fifty kilos. It won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1971 and 1973, and that second year it gave Alpine the first World Rally Championship for manufacturers.

Only two of the old ones are for sale at UK specialists today, and they're both blue, which Alfie will take as proof. The one that stopped me is a 1972 1600 S at Drew Wheeler: the fast road version, five-speed manual, just under a hundred and forty thousand pounds.

The other's a 1973 1300 at Godins, built up with a fair bit of Group 4 rally kit, at just under seventy-seven grand. I mean, there were several different 1300s, so which one it started as is the first thing I'd ask. Auction-house habit... ask before you fall in love.

Then the name came back in 2017, and the new one stayed small and light. Mid-engined this time, a turbo four, more about the weight than the power. There are over forty for sale, typically around fifty-two grand.

Cheapest is a 2019 Pure at Jon Seal Sportscars, thirty-five grand. For my money the Pure's closest in spirit to the old car, because it's the plainest.

Mind you... every new one for sale is an automatic, because a dual-clutch is how they were made. Both the old ones are manuals. You can guess which way I lean.

Near the top there's a 2026 A110 R Turini at Retail Renault Group Alpine, about eighty-three grand, named after the Col de Turini, the pass the Monte Carlo Rally made famous. So the new car still tips its hat to the old one. And the old 1600 S costs roughly four times the cheapest new one. I can't really argue, if I'm honest... it's the one that won.

Right, the Pulse, and back to episode one and the SLS. Its successor was the AMG GT, and the wildest of those was the Black Series, seven hundred and twenty horsepower. There's a 2021 one at Better Performance, in orange, that was cut by a round hundred thousand yesterday, so it's now asking a shade under three hundred and fifty grand.

Typical AMG GTs are asking under eighty, so this isn't the whole market. Is it the start of something for Black Series prices? Um... I'd want to see a second one do it.

Which brings me to Dave in Kettering, who heard episode one on his way to work. He's with me on the three-hundred SL, but he'd have the SLS daily, and twice on Sundays, because it sounds better and he can get out without pulling something. Well, Dave, it's Sunday, so that's two today.

And Chris in Bristol asked about my first car. His was a 1.1 Fiesta in what Ford called Radiant Red and he calls salmon, and he'd have it back tomorrow. Radiant is a very brave word for salmon, Chris. Mine was my dad's old red Mk1 MX-5, sold at university for a house-share deposit, and yes, same, I'd have it back tomorrow. There's a red one online I keep looking at, and that's all I'm saying.

If it were me... I'd have the 1972 1600 S. Manual, blue, and it won the rally that mattered. I'd just have to get Alfie his model first.

If you got something out of that, tap like and subscribe, because a small show lives on it. Write and tell me about the car you're hunting for: hattie at vertar dot com. And if you're watching on YouTube, put your first car in the comments, I'll go through every single one over a cuppa. Same time tomorrow, then.