Alpine has unveiled an off-road version of the A110 SportsX concept.

Alpine's A110 mid-ship sports car is one of the best-handling cars on the track. In fact, Gordon Murray is the owner of the car and plans to use it as a benchmark for his upcoming T50 supercar.

And now, with a few basic modifications, Alpine is trying to show that the A110 can also perform quite well off-road. The French automaker used the International Automotive Festival, which opened Wednesday in Paris, to unveil the A110 SportsX concept.

The design study, a collaboration between Alpine's design and engineering departments, is based on the standard A110 but with a higher ride height and wider tires. The vehicle is 2.36 inches taller and 3.15 inches wider than the standard A110. Two pairs of ski boards are mounted on the roof rack.

The powertrain remains unchanged, with an inline 4-cylinder 1.8-liter turbocharger producing 252 hp of maximum power and 236 hp of maximum torque. Alpine also has a more powerful A110 (A110S).

The inspiration for the concept is said to have come from the original A110 that won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1973, but unfortunately there are no plans to market or race the A110 SportsX. For now, it remains a design study, but hopefully there are enough potential buyers to persuade Alpine to produce it in small quantities.