Ethan

You may have heard of Alpine, the French car brand owned by Renault. Perhaps you are an old rally fan, or perhaps you just like French cars. But Alpine hasn’t really been mainstream since the early 80s, that is, until now. Alpine has just released the 2019 Alpine A110, a remake of the iconic Alpine A110 from the 70s that dominated the rally scene. The new A110 is not as rally oriented but still shares a visual similarity to the earlier model, but it is serving as a fresh competitor to the Porsche Cayman. The new A110 is a quick mid-engine 2-seater sports car with 249 horsepower with a top speed just shy of 160 mph. Although the Cayman is substantially more powerful, the A110 is over 10,000 dollars cheaper than the Porsche.

The new A110 handles very well despite its low numbers. The excellent driving experience gives it an edge over its more powerful competitors. The A110 proved its worth on the hugely popular automotive show on Amazon Prime Video, The Grand Tour. It went around the show’s track with a time of 1:23.70, which is over two seconds faster than the new Acura NSX’s track time even though the NSX has more than double the horsepower of the A110. That just goes to show that power isn’t everything when it comes to a sports car. There is no manual option available for the A110 despite the sequential paddle shifters that do come with the car. The interior is nice however it’s not amazing. The Premier Edition does have leather seats with quilted stitching, but overall the car is lacking some luxury that should live up to the car’s $48,150 price tag.

As a result of Alpine’s slight irrelevance, the car probably won’t do very well when there is a more recognizable option, the Porsche Cayman. But if the new A110 proves successful, this car could easily be the revival of a former icon. Alpine will not be partaking in any rally races as they are not focusing in that area as much as they did in the 70s. Under the supervision of Renault, Alpine is on its way to becoming mainstream yet again. The car community is eager to see Alpine’s revival and the A110 is only the beginning.

The first Toyota Supra was released in 1978 eventually having 4 more generations follow up until 2002. The Supra had been an automotive icon in Japan as it dominated the street racing scene but really gained traction in America after the first installment of the Fast and Furious franchise in 2001 due to the movie’s large success. The Supra maintained its relevance well after the production had ended, but talk of an all-new Supra didn’t become apparent until 2015 when early concepts of the new Supra were released. It’s 2019 and the Toyota Supra has now officially made its debut as the new Supra was even able to land a Super Bowl commercial.
The overall looks of the new Supra have indeed changed from the early 2000s MkIV model and have even changed a bit from its initial concept back in 2015. The car is a two-door coupe with no rear seats, similar to the previous Supra. BMW was a large part in the production of the Supra as the interior is almost entirely BMW while most of the rest of the car was designed in Germany as well. Toyota making a car with BMW may seem unordinary, but it was the obvious choice for Toyota as BMW was so successful with their Z4, which is very similar to the Supra, and Toyota wanted to have some of BMW’s unique features. The new Supra doesn’t only have a BMW interior, the Supra shares a platform with the BMW Z4, BMW’s compact sports car. The Supra will be rear wheel drive and will feature BMW’s B58 turbocharged inline-six making over 300 horsepower. A four-cylinder option is expected, but while likely not release alongside the Supra’s six-cylinder option. The Supra is expected to sell for $50,000 but will likely have a more expensive model as other options are revealed. One controversy that has arisen following the Supra’s debut is a rumor that a manual option will not be released which would be a disappointing choice by Toyota as most of the consumers would much prefer a manual experience.
The new Supra shares a top speed of 155 mph with the MkIV Turbo Supra which is the previous model. Although the new Supra shares a top speed with its older brother, acceleration is faster, weight is lighter, and power is much stronger in the new 2020 Supra with a 4.1 second 0-60 and weighing 3397 lbs, 53 lbs less than the MkIV. Toyota will be using the Supra in professional races as a flagship model. Some of the alternative options that will be released alongside the base Supra will not be available in the U.S. due to a predicted lack of demand in the U.S. for the new Supra. Europe and Japan will likely be the largest consumers of the new Supra due to the reputation the Supra has already made in Japan and the popularity of fast sports cars that dominate the streets of Europe. The new Supra will not completely diminish the demand for the older MkIV as the demand for the iconic Japanese sports car is very evident due to the prices of good condition MkIVs going for well over $50,000, selling for higher than the new Supra’s base price. The wait has been painfully long, but the 2020 Supra is finally here. Will it reach the legendary status of the MkIV, or will it join all the other average sports cars striving for greatness? Only time can tell; the bar is immensely high for the new Supra, and we can only hope that it can reach it.

There have always been cars that were record breaking in speed or looks, maybe they were featured in movie driven by a badass spy. But, there are always the cars that are completely unique, maybe they did something that no car had ever done. Maybe it looked so odd, you didn’t no if it was really ugly or really cool. What car do you think is special/unique?