Announced last March, Alpine lifts the veil on a special berlinetta, the A110 Pikes Peak, which will perhaps be the last Alpine with a combustion engine. The berlinetta remains adored by aficionados and this version should still help to maintain the flame. Starting from an A 110 R berlinetta, that is to say the most powerful version of 300 horsepower, the technical development team at Signatech and Alpine design deliver a berlinetta pushed on steroids. And you have to since the challenge is to tackle the 19.93 km Pikes Peak, the most famous hill climb in the world located in Colorado, on June 25.
We remember the exploits of Ari Vatanen then Sébastien Loeb at the wheel of Peugeot prototypes, this time the glove is taken up by Alpine but in a slightly more modest way since it competes in a lower category imposing to preserve the overall architecture of the vehicle series. But our photos show it, the transformation is still radical, especially on the aerodynamic level where a huge fin with its fins takes place at the front while a central fin at the rear points between the two rear half-fins.
They should offer considerable downforce at high speed, which the profile of the event allows with very fast sections but also involving a loss of power at altitude caused by the rarefaction of the air. From this point of view, turbo engines fare better than naturally aspirated ones, but the power loss can reach 45% at the top above sea level.
This is the reason why the small 4-cylinder 1.6 l already supercharged at 300 horsepower on the series R berlinetta becomes downright explosive at 500 horsepower on the Pikes Peak. The experience of Formula 1 and Le Mans prototypes served the engineers, knowing that this engine was designed for a longevity not exceeding a few tens of kilometers.
The driver will be Raphaël Astier, the 2022 FIA R-GT Cup winner with Alpine. A debugging has already been carried out on the circuit of Lurcy-Lévis (Allier) last week. Other runs are planned in the Drôme, perhaps even in Ventoux and on the climb to Val Thorens in the coming weeks.
It is a question of reproducing as closely as possible the conditions of the American event in order to be perfectly at the point at the end of June in Colorado. There is no question of beating the record of the rise which is the objective of much more powerful vehicles. It is owned by Frenchman Romain Dumas, who took 7 min 57 s with the electric Volkswagen I.D. to swallow the 156 turns. But the Alpine in its Time-Attack 1 category has what it takes to achieve top-notch performance and one rare feature: compared to much heavier monsters, Alpine has managed to contain the weight of this machine. at only 950 kg. A real trademark!
