What’s the chance that once all of the paperwork and mumbo jumbo is over that the Chrysler Fiat/PSA merger will reward us with this? This is the Alpine A110 SportsX concept. Did you think you only liked SUVs before seeing this? In some ways, this is like an SUV. We want it but will we ever get it?

This is a concept from Alpine for the 2020 Festival Automobile International in Paris. Because it’s winter in places besides and including the US some manufacturers use the opportunity to liven up their displays with winter-themed concepts. We recently told you about the Bentley Continental GT ice racer. This is along those lines.

The Alpine A100 SportsX can be turned into many things, could that also include becoming an SUV?

The Alpine A110 has seen its fair share of racing iterations since its debut in 2017. From Cup racers to Rally cars, it can be molded into almost any race setting. So it was natural to take the lifted A110 Rally concept which came at the end of last year and reconfigure it into the SportsX. 

Alpine has a context for its 2020 Automobile Festival display. It is called “Between Retrospective and Perspective” is its way of saying it takes some of the past successes and spins them into a concept. And those concepts might turn into production variants. 

Thos Alpine vehicles from the past in the display are the A210 prototype, Vision Gran Turismo, A110 1800 Gp4, a berlinette 1300, the A110S, and the SportsX. Quite a nice lineup. Of course, the current A110 is a modern interpretation itself of the original produced throughout most of the 1960s and 1970s.

The Alpine A110 SportsX inspiration came from winning the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally

The SportsX inspiration came from the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally winning A110. Alpine has no plans to make this into a production vehicle. However, you can see where this is going. It only builds a few thousand of these a year. With consumers switching their tastes toward SUVs, a manufacturer could possibly create interest and extend a car’s reach by lifting it and playing off of past performances off-road. 

Let’s face it, cars are evaporating. From Ferrari to Ford and everything in between SUVs are the current platform of choice. Look at Lamborghini, for instance. It has grown by three since it produced the Urus SUV starting in 2018. That’s a bit over two years. It’s amazing growth. 

A lifted A110 is authentic and it looks really good

But little Alpine isn’t a huge producer. So it needs to cater to fashion and trends on its terms. A lifted Alpine is authentic, so there’s no appearance of pandering. It’s not only lifted 2.4-inches but it features bodywork that is three inches wider. It’s rocking an SUV-like look while still remaining a sports car. That’s a hard one to pull off, but the Alpine seems to be pulling it off.

Alpine probably doesn’t need to add a lifted A110 to its lineup but it should. It’s an honest interpretation of a racecar from its past. It is also pulling off a look that before this has been the domain of SUVs. The lifted Subarus and Buick TourX wagons try it, but don’t have the panaché the A110 SportsX displays.