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French nip and tuck. Image by Renault.

French nip and tuck
Renault revises its Clio range and delivers a harder, more focussed Renaultsport 200 Cup version.

   



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| First Drive | Porto, Portugal | Clio Renaultsport 200 Cup |

Renault continues its hot hatch tradition with the new Clio line-up delivering a new even more hardcore Renaultsport 200 Cup from the off. At £15,750 you'll struggle to find anything else that delivers quite as thrilling a drive.

In the Metal

The new Clio range is a typical phase two, mid-life machine, the core car being much the same but for a bit of nip-and-tuck in the styling department. The front end follows the look introduced by its Mégane relative, the Renaultsport models additionally benefitting from the 'F1 Blade' section set low in the front that apes the front wing of Alonso's company car.

Other than that there's little different to the Cup in comparison to its predecessor: it still has the same four-square look, the confident bulging wheelarches filled with smoked alloys behind which the large brake discs are clearly visible. Renaultsport customers apparently wanted more obvious exhausts, so that's exactly what Renault has given them, the two large chrome finished pipes prominently situated either side of the rear diffuser.

What you get for your Money

Depending on your viewpoint, the Cup either brings a lot or not much. If your focus is purely driver pleasure then the Cup delivers a mighty offering, the 2.0-litre powerplant pumping out 197bhp and 158lb.ft of torque. That is enough to have this lightweight machine reach 62mph in 6.9 seconds and onto a 141mph maximum. It is badged '200', which is a PS figure, the mainland European means of measuring power output meaning it's now got the same bhp output as the 197 name of its predecessor - the old 197-badged car actually delivered 194bhp. Confused?

The Cup variant is the slightly more focussed version of the Renaultsport 200 line-up. As such it comes without niceties like climate control, curtain airbags, electrically adjusted and heated door mirrors and a 'soft-touch' fascia. Some of the other kit that's binned we'd be happy to lose, the automatic wipers and headlamps, cruise control, speed limiter and the hands-free keycard all being kit that's superfluous anyway. Unless you're a heat fiend you'll perhaps want to add the manual air conditioning for £550 and while we're ticking boxes we'd have the excellent Recaro seats for £850 too.

Driving it

Along with junking some useless kit Renault has deleted reach adjustment on the steering wheel, which does rather limit your choices on the driving position. The optional Recaro seats do help solve this but it's perhaps a deletion too far. With its capacity to excite on the track it's not unreasonable to think it'll get hot inside, so make sure you pay for air conditioning: a few laps in the Portugal sun underlined how necessary chilled air is.

The 197bhp 2.0-litre engine is as sweet as ever, the rev-counter needle swinging around to its red-line with real vigour. When it approaches it a warning beep suggests an upshift, and a changed cog rewarded with another surge of relentless acceleration. In the first three gears that punch is assisted by shorter gear ratios - and 20% improved low-end torque - the remaining three gears longer for economy reasons. You'll only need fourth and fifth on longer straights on tracks, the Clio devouring the Portuguese test circuit's corners in third and punching hard out of the bends. The steering is light and accurate and more responsive than ever but there's still not a huge amount of information through the chunky wheel rim.

The gearshift too retains the rather vague feeling across its gate that's something of a characteristic of quick Renaults. The French firm needs to poach Honda's gearbox boffin for some real mechanical precision. With its 15% stiffer Cup chassis the Clio's control in bends is sensational, though the ride might prove a touch compromised on Britain's under-invested tarmac.

Worth Noting

The Renaultsport range consists of three models: the Renaultsport 200 Cup (which we've driven on track in Portugal), a standard Renaultsport Clio 200 and a Renaultsport Clio 200 with the Cup chassis. The standard car is 15% softer than its predecessor and the Cup 15% stiffer, widening the gap between the comfier, more luxuriously appointed machine and the hotter (quite literally without that air-con) 200 Cup. Perhaps the best compromise for many is the standard car with the Cup chassis added, though currently customers buy all three in equal amounts. We'd have a 200 Cup with manual air conditioning and those brilliant Recaro seats.

Summary

A brief but exciting glimpse of the Renaultsport 200 Cup underlines that if you're after a sub-£16k supermini hot hatch you're going to struggle to find anything as involving or as enjoyable as the Renaultsport Clios. We'll be driving them all soon on the road in the UK when we'll be able to give a more in-depth report, but on first acquaintance it's safe to say that they remain the hot hatches to beat in their class. By a quite significant margin.

Kyle Fortune - 1 May 2009



  www.renault.co.uk    - Renault road tests
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2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.

2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Dave Jenkins.



2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Renault.
 

2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Renault.
 

2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Renault.
 

2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Renault.
 

2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Renault.
 

2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Renault.
 

2009 Renault Clio Renaultsport 200. Image by Renault.
 






 

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