FEATURE TEST: Alpine A110 and Jaguar F-TYPE 2.0

There's a log jam of sports cars around the $100,000 mark. These cars are mostly powered by turbocharged four-cylinder engines and they encapsulate all that's good in a modern sports car. Buyers can get into an Audi TT quattro, the Mercedes-Benz SLC 300 or the Porsche 718 Cayman for that sort of money. And soon there'll be a new BMW Z4 in the market.

Other than the Audi, which is powered by a transverse-oriented engine driving all four wheels, these cars are rear-wheel drive... as too are a trio of Euro cars that aren't actually German: the Alfa 4C and the two cars tested here, the Alpine A110 and the Jaguar F-TYPE 2.0.

The Porsche Cayman is the sports car to beat in the segment between $80,000 and $200,000. Forget the four-seat coupes; we're talking just the two-seaters already mentioned. If the Cayman is king, what are the alternatives?

The new-to-market Alpine A110 is an obvious choice. It's undoubtedly a direct rival to the Cayman, and undercuts the Porsche on price. Positioned slightly upmarket of the French car is the Jaguar F-TYPE 2.0. While the Jaguar and the Alpine are not true competitors – the Jaguar is more a GT car – they do bookend the Cayman, which blurs the line between sports car and Grand Tourer.

Pigeon-holing buyers for the F-TYPE is easy. We figure they could be older buyers, most likely Jaguar fans of long standing and, at the very least, in the market for a car that looks good, goes respectably well and offers Jaguar's well known dynamic traits in an affordable touring package. Style is important to F-TYPE buyers, we reckon. The F-TYPE features retro cues, but is not a retro design, says the company's style chief, Ian Callum.

Nominating who will buy the A110 is somewhat harder. It's close in specification to the Cayman, and for not much less in price. Like the Jaguar, the Alpine is right up to date in style, but incorporates numerous cues that recall the rally-winning A110 Berlinette from the 1960s. Buyers for the Alpine are possibly iconoclasts and non-conformists who recall the Alpine brand with fondness – but could never afford one of the original cars.

Just as likely, they're younger Renault fans who want to take the next step up from a Megane RS, although local Renault MD Andrew Moore insists that the Alpine is not a Renault.

The A110 came to us with no options fitted, so its as-tested price is the same as its manufacturer's retail list price, $106,500. In contrast, the F-TYPE's price was inflated by options taking the Jaguar from $112,078 to $123,848. Of the options, the exterior black pack ($2250) could be left off the order.

It's hard to keep clean for a start. For a car priced above $110,000, some options – rear-view camera for $1060, seat memory pack for $2150 and keyless entry for $1200 – should be standard.

Still, in relative terms the Jaguar came better equipped than the Alpine, especially where safety features counted. Things like driver condition monitor and lane-keep assist, to name a couple.

Additional comfort and convenience features in the Jag that are missing in the Alpine include actual seat recline adjustment and a 10-speaker audio system. The Alpine also makes do without a reversing camera.

Driven for fun, the Alpine feels just as one imagines an original A110 Berlinette would feel, but quieter, more refined and roomier. It's a modern car loaded with character.

The Alpine is a true sports car and a real competitor for the Cayman. It's very nimble through tighter bends and capable of carrying a lot of speed into corners with just a touch of brakes to set it up. Get on the power before the apex and the Alpine's rear-end grip is excellent.

Steering and switchgear are very light to use, and oddly, that adds to the Alpine's retro feel, but the steering is also highly responsive. In fact, reviewer Matt Brogan felt that the A110's steering is actually too direct, making it harder to place precisely on the road when changing direction – especially after stepping straight out of the bigger Jaguar.

In a straight line the A110 is a wicked little beast. Power delivery is accompanied by a throaty four-pot burble just like that of its illustrious predecessor. There's a shotgun blast from the exhaust on the overrun and a whoosh from the turbocharger, whispering into the driver's left ear.

While cruising – and despite having the engine so close behind the driver – the A110 is quieter than we recall of Porsche's 718 Cayman. The Alpine's engine does rumble a little when cruising, but tyre noise from the original-equipment Michelins is very well suppressed on coarse-chip bitumen.

In spite of its low-slung stature (the Jaguar alongside seems as high off the ground as an SUV), the Alpine won't graze its front end leaving the driveway and is fairly easy to enter and leave, also providing a field of vision unlike almost any other mid/rear-engined sports coupe you've ever driven. You can actually check for traffic over the shoulder to the left rear.

Lowering oneself into the deeply contoured racing seats is by no means difficult, and while the seats themselves are very snug and hold the occupant securely during harder cornering, they're also comfortable for touring. In contrast, the Jaguar's seats lack the hard-core contouring of the Alpine's, but they're quite well shaped for a wider range of body types.

At speed, the F-TYPE feels very stable, poised and comfortable. Of the two cars on test, the Jag is the one you would choose for a long journey to a weekend retreat. The ride quality is moderately firm, but there's more compliance on typical country roads than the Alpine's sportier set-up.

In terms of interior, the F-TYPE is more luxurious. Overall, fit and finish is a win to the Jag and compared with the Alpine's infotainment system, the Jaguar's is more cohesive and better integrated.

The Jaguar struggles to keep up with its French rival from the very first bend in the road. There's an unfortunate corollary to the Jaguar's cushy touring ability; the weight difference between these two cars is huge. The Jaguar weighs nearly 50 per cent more (tare) than the Alpine, according to RedBook data.

So we might as well state the case explicitly – the Jaguar is not in the same league as the Alpine, judged as a sports car. Nor would it measure up to the Cayman, for the same reason. The F-TYPE is a car in the mould of a Grand Tourer, as already noted.

While the Jaguar's Continental tyres do their best, they're protesting long before the Alpine's Michelins become talkative. The body control isn't in the same league as the Alpine's either. Punt the Jaguar into a corner and it leans and the body rocks briefly, whereas the A110 adopts a flat stance.

In fairness, the Alpine also feels slightly sketchy as it approaches its own roadholding 'envelope', whereas the Jaguar's grip is lower, but handling always feels predictable.

The Alpine handles a little like an old-fashioned Porsche 911. Brake and turn in on a trailing throttle and the Alpine's tail wants to step out. Reapply throttle and it will straighten up, but in a double-apex corner the Alpine driver could be kept quite busy – much more so than the driver of a Honda Civic Type R at the same sort of speed.

Still, the Alpine's handling can be a lot of fun; so whether its handling is a plus or a minus will depend on a driver's point of view.

The Jaguar's engine is noticeably laggy after driving the Alpine. Whereas the A110 delivers torque on demand to make the suspension squat before the apex of the corner for a slingshot exit, the F-TYPE just can't match that.

The Alpine's dual-clutch transmission clunks a little at low speed and does 'pulse' with the torque slightly while backing. It's otherwise a commendable unit, but it feels a little unresolved – like half a generation behind other dual-clutch transmissions in developmental terms. The Alpine's shift paddles are fixed in place, and there are differing schools of thought as to whether that's a good thing, but with the transmission proving so responsive in Sport mode, the paddles are almost redundant anyway.

Both cars were prone to build-related rattling, with the Alpine producing a persistent buzz from the rear of the car, and the Jaguar subject to an intermittent (but frequent) metallic squeak from the dash.

The infotainment screen in the A110 reminds us of the same fixture in the Suzuki Baleno. It works well enough, but looks a bit tacky. Material quality in the Alpine was also lacking and some of the fixtures may not age well, possibly wearing prematurely.

There are no winners or losers in this instance. This is a feature test which aims to look at two cars of a similar price and genre. Both cars are two-seat coupes powered by turbocharged four-cylinder engines driving to the rear wheels – and they're in the same ballpark for pricing – but they're different enough to defy cross-shopping.

The Alpine represents a threat to Cayman sales, but the Jaguar plays in its own sector of the market.

The team at carsales would be very happy with either of these cars, but they are different horses for different courses.