A110 Légende GT 2021

It’s not a Porsche.

I decided to treat myself to a ‘multiple of 10’ birthday present, and as it is likely to be the last hydrocarbon-fuelled car the government will allow, make it something memorable. The outgoing car was an entirely practical and sensible Merc GLA250, ideal for our regular runs down to SouthWest France on the autoroute, and in sport mode actually faster than it’s predecessor, a MINI Cooper S. So the options were a Cayman, a GLA45 or the Alpine.
MercedesWorld at Weybridge could only let me have the GLA45 for 30 minutes, so I never got outside a 40mph limit. Obviously a hugely capable car, but like a caged tiger within an urban environment, so discounted out of pure frustration; I’m not spending £60k on a car I can’t even test.
Porsche gave me a Cayman (standard, not S) for 2 hours; much better, and I was constantly trying to assess its steering response, acceleration, braking and all the sensory aspects of a top flight sports car. Beautifully made, with all the toys, but ultimately simply didn’t feel sufficiently different to drive from my Merc to justify £40k on top of the trade-in. Sure, it’s faster, with fewer seats and doors but it wasn’t a whole new driving experience.
So almost immediately I went back for another go at the Alpine. No assessments of its driving characteristics, no pondering on its cornering capability, just grinning from ear to ear as I had the tail out on the second roundabout and blasted off down the road. The car just works for and with you - memories of my old Elan+2S 130/5 from way back. This was the sort of driving experience that’s worth paying for. Better yet, the servicing, fuel and depreciation costs are all forecast to seriously undercut anything of comparable performance.
Is it perfect? No way. The luggage room is just about tolerable if you order the special Alpine RyanAir-sized cases for the front boot but the lack of ANY internal storage is ridiculous. The switchgear is the same as my wife’s Twingo, and the SatNav is like a basic after-market TomTom from 10 years ago. Oh, and the parking brake has stuck on 3 times in as many weeks, rendering the car immobile until either it’s gets sufficient revs to break the stiction in the pads, or the mechanism unfreezes after getting wet on a cold night.
So in build integrity, available options and sense of invulnerability it’s not a Porsche. But I’ve yet to see another on the road, the driving experience is a world away from the Germanic automotive appliance and people actually let you out of junctions and smile. And you smile back. So it’s definitely not a Porsche.

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