The Renaultsport Clio has long been
an Evo favorite. Can the new model, complete with a turbocharged engine and
paddle-shift transmission, uphold Renault’s illustrious reputation?
Hot Renault hatchbacks have been in my
blood for almost as long as I can remember. There was the white Renault 5 Turbo
2 that I used to fill up with fuel as a teenage petrol pump attendant. The 5
Turbo Raider my parents bought new in 1990, my very first overseas press trip
to the launch of the original Clio Williams in Corsica, and the multiple
Renaultsport Clios I’ve been lucky to live with as long-termers. All along,
these snorty little French rockets have unfailingly had me hooked.
In
recent years, Renaultsport has climbed to an unassailable position of
credibility when it comes to building hardcore hatchbacks
In recent years, Renaultsport has climbed
to an unassailable position of credibility when it comes to building hardcore
hatchbacks. There’s a great deal to admire and enjoy about the diminutive
Twingo 133 and the Ring-conquering Mégane 265 Trophy, but for me the mid-sized
Clio 200 is the essence of the RS brand’s everyman magic. Fierce, feisty and
fearlessly uncompromising its brilliance lies in the way it sucks you into a
world of maximum commitment where you have to work the car hard for your kicks
and are rewarded accordingly. For that reason it’s commonly regarded as the
ultimate contemporary analogue hot hatch, and is therefore a very tough act to
follow.
All of this explains my uneasy mix of
excitement and foreboding for the imminent arrival of Renaultsport’s take on
the all-new fourth-generation Clio. Excitement because the new Clio 200 Turbo
promises increased and more freely given performance, and should strike a less
fundamentalist balance between high-performance thrills and everyday life.
Foreboding because it does so by making a radical departure from the great
Clios of the past, swapping a hard-edged, rev-hungry naturally aspirated engine
and manual transmission for the more accessible combination of a
smaller-capacity turbo-assisted motor and a dual-clutch paddle-shift
transmission.
Excitement
because the new Clio 200 Turbo promises increased and more freely given
performance
We’ve travelled to Grenada in southern
Spain for the launch drive, which is divided between road testing in the
standard Sport-chassis car (basic price $28,493) and track driving at the
Guadix circuit 30 miles to the east in the more aggressively suspended
Cup-chassis car. (The ‘Cup’ name is now used solely for the chassis option –
priced at $675 and not a separate, stripped-out model.) The weather’s not
great, in fact it’s pretty miserable, but the sight of a car park filled with
Flame Red Clios is enough to brighten our mood.
When I first saw this new Clio in pictures
I wasn’t sure about its styling, and first in-the-metal impressions remain
mixed, to be honest. It’s a bigger, bulkier-looking car, dominated by those
oversize headlights and the giant Renault diamond badge, but there’s no denying
it has presence, and plenty of complex curves to keep your gaze wandering. It
disguises the fact that it’s a five-door car surprisingly well, but much like
the hardware it conceals, the styling is a big departure from what we’ve grown used
to.
It’s equally striking inside. Fillets of
bright red plastic plus contrast stitching on the seats create slashed of
colour around the sporty black interior. The overall look and feel is of a
higher quality than in the old Clio, and more than a match for the Mégane,
which we know to be durable and resistant to the squeaks and rattles that can
plague firmly sprung hot hatches. It’s also comfortable and generously
equipped, which tallies with its intention to offer more habitable surrounding
of less hardy sorts.
Gearbox
contributes to a combined fuel consumption figure of 44.8mpg – 10.3mpg more
than the old Clio 200
As is the norm with Renault, you get a
credit card-sized ‘key’ that you either keep in your pocket or push into the
slot in the dashboard, leaving you to simply press the starter button and bring
the engine to life. Developing 197bhp (200PS, hence the name) and 177lb ft of
torque, the new car’s headline figures aren’t that different to the old
model’s. That is until you compare where the power and torque arrive, at which
point the new car’s increased tractability becomes blindingly obvious. In the
outgoing car you needed 7100rpm to find all 197bhp, whereas its successor
delivers the same power 1100rpm earlier. However, it’s the relative torque
delivery that’s the killer: the old 2-liter nat-asp motor needed 5400rpm to
find 159lb ft, whereas the new 1.6-liter forced-induction engine hits 177lb ft
from 1750rpm, and stays there for another 3750rpm, only tailing off for the
last 1000rpm run to the 6500rpm red line.
