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The Alpine is back. Video to follow shortly!

The new exhaust is ready. It is a piece of automotive art. Test fitting complete (pictures below). The initial impression sitting on the ramp is the car now has the exhaust it deserves, deeper, louder and with more character at idle and under load. The system is also 2-3kg lighter and looks the part with increased diameter tailpipes incorporating a switchable butterfly valve on the right side that circumnavigates the back box to create a straight through solution.

Road and sound testing next followed by a promotional video so the QS team can promote the new system and take it to market. Will post once ready.

Yesterday I spent an enjoyable couple of hours with Paul, Ollie, Ben and Nat at the QuickSilver Exhaust Design Centre in Witley as together we began the process of designing a proper Alpine sports exhaust to replace the EU nannied OEM unit to give the A110 an exhaust to be proud of. An additional aim of the project is to loose weight and help unleash the engines full potential alongside the Litchfield engine remap due in September which will take the car to 310+bhp and giving her a sub 4 second 0-60 time and a sub 9 second 0-100 time.

This being the first time that they had got their hands on a A110, it was like watching kids in a candy store. They whipped off the rear diffuser, had a good poke around, did measurements, took pictures, took sound readings and then put it all back together. Next steps will be the design process using CAD. They will then have the car for 1-2 weeks during August and at the end of it all we should have something that sounds like an 70’s/80’s B Class rally car.

Once up on the ramp we also found a few surprises along the way. One being that many of the key nuts and bolts had been painted and colour coded to their final torque positions which is standard motorsport practice. This just shows the love and attention to detail that Alpine apply when hand building each of their cars… impressive. Two there are elliptical camber bolts built into the wishbone suspension mounting points ready to change the wheel angle on all four corners for track use. Three we also found the body had been signed too.

Bye, bye to my amazing Alfa 4C and 9 year old Abarth Essesse daily. Hello to my Alpine A110 Berlinette my new all in one. “It has beauty, lightness, speed and economy in one perfect handling package”. They are not my words but Gordon Murray’s who also owns one. If its good enough for him, its good enough for me.

Will this be the first modification when she arrives… not sure? Will defiantly be going for the Litchfield engine upgrade to 310BHP. Followed closely by a louder exhaust.