Millions of pounds worth of Porsches, Ferraris and Jaguars were spread out beneath me as I peered over the mezzanine at Joe Macari’s showroom in Wandsworth, south London. But my attention was drawn to the enormous screen above where, pixel by pixel, The Padel Rally logo I’d designed a year ago was loading. You can buy anything here if you have £POA in your bank account. Except perhaps the satisfaction of seeing your own logo projected above your childhood dream cars after months of hard graft.
The idea for The Padel Rally germinated where many great business plans tend to: in the pub. My business partner Jack and I were having a pint-fuelled chat about V12s and our favourite cars when it was suddenly cut short: “I can’t have another one. I’m playing at 7am tomorrow”.
Like me, Jack had been caught up in the wave of padel tennis sweeping through London. Late-night drinks were being traded for early-morning games, and it got us thinking. Could we fuse our two passions together? Padel and cars, that is, rather than padel and beer…
Alpine A290 leads Padel Rally
We planned an event that would be both a driving tour and a padel holiday, combining great roads, luxury destinations and competitive matches on unique courts. We aren’t the first to combine cars with the world’s fastest-growing sport, though – several car brands now support padel tournaments and players.
Just weeks before our event, in fact, the Alpine-sponsored Paris Major – padel’s answer to Roland Garros – was won by world number one Arturo Coello, a member of Alpine’s A-Padel team. So it felt fitting to have an Alpine A290, the French marque’s new electric hot hatch, as the lead car for our rally.
The £36,000 A290 GTS had a full day of challenges ahead. Would we be searching for a hotel in Stow-on-the-Wold after running low on charge? Could we keep pace with our supercar-driving guests? And was its ride supple enough to film content for our Instagram reels?
Keeping good company
Our route was built to test both the car and the concept – taking 10 guests from the London suburbs to lunch at the Cotswolds’ automotive epicentre: The Classic Motor Hub. We’d then enjoy an afternoon padel session and a green Michelin-starred dinner at Daylesford Farm – seemingly the preferred hangout of every rural influencer.
With Joe Macari’s coffee and croissant reserves suitably depleted, we led a convoy of six cars into the morning traffic. Excited, but also quietly apprehensive about everything that could go wrong, the Alpine did its best to calm us with its refined and comfortable cabin. Excellent visibility meant we could check our guests remained in tow, while the unmistakable Bleu Alpine paint made us easy to spot in the grid of monochrome Ubers. Aside from some quirky button placement and the puzzling lack of cupholders, it’s a near-faultless city car.
We finally squeezed through the Hammersmith bottleneck and two guests blasted past in an Audi R8 and Porsche 718 Cayman GT4. The 52kWh battery and 220hp motor reeled them back in with relative ease, though, with the ever-tempting ‘OV’ overtake button injecting real urgency when required.
Convoy to the Cotswolds
Use of this bright red fun button had to be rationed, though. Our 30-mile range buffer was shrinking faster than the number of miles ahead, although I fully intended to use whatever charge remained once we reached the Cotswold lanes.
With the motorway behind us, the route got tighter and twistier towards The Classic Motor Hub. Our guests were relieved to exercise their cars in earnest, and the A290 was equally eager to show off its upgraded anti-roll bars, stiffer suspension and Michelin Pilot Sport tyres – all standard on the GTS model. It’s one of the few EVs thus far that is genuinely fun to drive.
Carving through stone-built villages and rolling countryside with a convoy of padel-playing petrolheads was exactly what we’d imagined. The bright orange Ford Mustang in our mirrors blended into the autumn trees lining the road, its roaring V8 a constant reminder of why we’d spent so much time planning, organising and sending out emails. A peak British driving experience, then – and the smiles visible behind the steering wheels confirmed as much. So far, so good.
Lunch at The Classic Motor Hub
Pulling into our lunch stop behind a guest’s Aston Martin DBS, I was surprised to see so many eyes on the Alpine. Parked among The Classic Motor Hub’s collection of exotic cars, this five-door hatchback still stood out. Some people were curious, having not really heard of the brand, while others loved the retro styling. Its Renault 5 roots are immediately obvious.
Joe Macari had given our guests their fill of supercar royalty – think Maserati MC12 and McLaren F1 GTR – but The Classic Motor Hub served up a mix of rarities and vintage automobilia. Our private tour guide, Nigel, really brought the metal to life with stories about some of the most significant cars.
Lunch and a second incredible car collection devoured, we set off eager to throw the A290 down some more country lanes. Half an hour of ‘enthusiastic’ driving later, we arrived at Daylesford with only a few miles of range to spare. Thankfully, the Land Rover Defender is the Daylesford visitor’s vehicle of choice, so all but one EV charger was unoccupied.
Driven to play Padel
We took to the padel court as the car juiced up with what I assume was organic, free-range electricity – in keeping with everything else on sale at Daylesford Farm. Our guests would have to fill up with petrol on the way home, but being able to charge in the car park saved us a stop.
After two hours of intense on-court action, we freshened up in the on-site Bamford Spa before enjoying a relaxed dining experience at The Trough restaurant. Fuelled by incredible produce from the surrounding farm, we drew our first event to a close.
The Alpine had proved excellent at multi-tasking: as a camera car, supercar chaser and convoy leader. The padel played might not match the standard Alpine usually associates with its brand, but the Rally was full of light-hearted, sporting fun, which the A290 GTS also encapsulated so well.
Ready for a rematch
Like all interesting cars, it also sparked connections and friendships between like-minded enthusiasts. Relief hit as we watched our guests’ vehicles crunch out of the gravel car park, knowing we had done it: our first event – and surely the hardest, right? We fist-bumped, unplugged the A290 and immediately started to plan the next one.
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