The Alpine A110 is now five grand cheaper

Excellent news if you want an Alpine A110. Which, of course, you do. Two new versions have been announced, and they bring the price down.

Starting at £46,905 is the A110 Pure (pictured in white). It gets the same 248bhp turbo engine and seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox as the five grand pricier Premiere Edition, as well as all of its fancy driving modes. It even gets the same, wonderfully hugging lightweight Sabelt sports seats.

What it does without is stuff like Brembo brakes, a sports exhaust and bigger 18in wheels, but you can add all of these as options. And with the smaller 17in wheels, it’s actually a bit lighter, dropping the already slender A110 to 1,098kg. Probably worth tying it to something solid on a windy day.

Then there’s the A110 Legende (in grey), which also gets the same mid-mounted 1.8-litre driving the rear wheels, and is good for the same 4.5sec 0-62mph time and 155mph top speed as other Alpines.

It’s described as more like a GT, though, with six-way adjustable leather seats, park assist and two-tone 18in wheels – designed to ape those on the original A110 – among the stuff that’s standard for its £50,805. Both of these cars reveal the long since sold out A110 Premiere Edition as a Porsche GTS-style options list ‘greatest hits’.

Dropping the Alpine below fifty grand helps it much better rival the Porsche 718 Cayman. While it starts below £43,000, add PDK, sports buckets and Sport Chrono to an entry-level Cayman – so that it has a comparable gearbox, seats and driving modes to the Alpine – and you sail past £48,000.

Alpine or Porsche, which would you go for?