Clarkson might have made his ferry if he’d chosen this Twingo
Dan Trent writes:
Now anyone who watched Top Gear last night will be well up to speed on the Renaultsport Twingo 133 and the somewhat soggy ending to what was an unusually positive review from the man Clarkson.
But what could Renault do to the Renaultsport Twingo to make it better? Well, stripping a bit of weight out of it, making it cheaper and slinging some black wheels on it was a good start.
But the Cup version modelled here by CJ at the recent Renaultsport day at Oulton Park is only the starting point. And if you’ve gone out and bought one start saving. Because you’re going to need to spend another €27,990 on it. Plus VAT.
Admittedly, you’d be then looking at a Renault Twingo costing about the same as Porsche Cayman S. But I can guarantee it would be at least as much fun. And way cooler.
What we have here is the latest off-the-shelf rally car from hot-hatch gods Renaultsport. The Dieppe-based performance division already builds Clio Cup race cars and various rally versions too. Serious pieces of kit they are too.
But this Twingo rally car just looks like so much fun. Two kits are available. R1 is the more basic one, comprising roll cage, stripped interior, safety equipment and the rest but keeping the engine and gearbox standard. But the R2 spec is the one you want, complete with 160hp power upgrade, sequential five-speed SADEV gearbox, limited-slip diff, bigger brakes and fully adjustable dampers. It also gets proper hydraulic power steering, replacing the standard roadcar’s slightly numb electric set up. Various upgrade kits for beefed up running gear for gravel rallies and suchlike are also available.
It was hard to imagine how driving the Renaultsport Twingo could have been made more fun. But the idea of blatting a road-legal, tarmac spec Twingo R2 along a country lane or going along to a track day and winding up supercar drivers is just too appealing for words.
Guess what I want for Christmas…
Dan
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Links:
Babies’ got battle scars
Renaultsport Twingo 133 first drive
On-track testing with the CG Lock
Clios in a spin at Oulton Park
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Posted: December 7th, 2009 under News.
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