2023 Renault Twizy, or: Calimero the amusing commuter egg
Discussion
Went to a Twizy meet in the South of Germany at Saturday.
I live at the Swiss/german border, directly at the Lake Constanze shore, so for me it was only a 40min ferry ride and just "half a tank" to the meeting point.
On the ferry I had a thing parked behind me that also had only 20hp. Next to his other 700...
The actual meetup, were were 12 Twizys.
The afternoon group drive was a hoot, cue real life Mario Cart!
A former Twizy owner that went rouge and bought a Microlino was also with us, barely tolerated of course.
Together we went to a local car/tractor museum. - Look, 17hp, 450kg, no windows! = That's 100% a Twizy!
Farming with style!
Guess which one is mine?! - Yep, in Switzerland Twizys are authorized as motorbikes hence I don't need a front plate, in comparison with all ze Germäns and their ugly baking trays.
Talking shop until deep into the night. As I have my Twizy only since 5 months and there were people there who had theirs for over 10 years, I took their combined knowledge in like a sponge.
Fischer-Haus in Salem, Germany, beautiful hidden hotel with only 5 rooms were I stayed the night. Apparently the owner did a google search for "Renault Twizy" before I arrived and so very kindly prepaired a long electrical cord so I could charge the Twizy even on the outlying parking lot.
Driving home again on sunday morning, waiting for the ferry in Friedrichshafen. - It has been a great weekend!
I live at the Swiss/german border, directly at the Lake Constanze shore, so for me it was only a 40min ferry ride and just "half a tank" to the meeting point.
On the ferry I had a thing parked behind me that also had only 20hp. Next to his other 700...
The actual meetup, were were 12 Twizys.
The afternoon group drive was a hoot, cue real life Mario Cart!
A former Twizy owner that went rouge and bought a Microlino was also with us, barely tolerated of course.
Together we went to a local car/tractor museum. - Look, 17hp, 450kg, no windows! = That's 100% a Twizy!
Farming with style!
Guess which one is mine?! - Yep, in Switzerland Twizys are authorized as motorbikes hence I don't need a front plate, in comparison with all ze Germäns and their ugly baking trays.
Talking shop until deep into the night. As I have my Twizy only since 5 months and there were people there who had theirs for over 10 years, I took their combined knowledge in like a sponge.
Fischer-Haus in Salem, Germany, beautiful hidden hotel with only 5 rooms were I stayed the night. Apparently the owner did a google search for "Renault Twizy" before I arrived and so very kindly prepaired a long electrical cord so I could charge the Twizy even on the outlying parking lot.
Driving home again on sunday morning, waiting for the ferry in Friedrichshafen. - It has been a great weekend!
Edited by lipadier on Monday 18th September 20:49
Gary C said:
Got to say, this looks fun.
Will it slide
They are very controllable in a slide despite the short wheel base.Will it slide
I had a sideways moment under braking down-hill yesterday after dropping my horse lorry off for MOT - It was great fun! I have slid it around a lot in the mud too.
I thought the Italian Job solution for getting back from the lorry MOT was funny.
Edited by Caddyshack on Tuesday 19th September 11:56
Let's talk sound: As already mentioned in this thread my Twizy has a integrated bluetooth audio system, including two speakers left and right above the drivers head. And while that works well for phone calls, GPS instructions or podcasts/audiobooks, it's absolutely useless for any music, as there is no bass, at all. Nada. Rien. Nix.
Sure there are some aftermarket options for replacing the speakers with bigger/better ones, but in reality there just isn't enough volume in the roof bar to give good results.
So the easiest update is to simply ignore the integrated system and to buy a modern bluetooth box for placing it right next to the seat, which is what I've done this week, I've got me a big Sony SRS-XG300 party noisemaker:
This thing is awesome, the bass capabilities are truly impressive and bone dry without any unwanted booming. It will also blast music up to 25hrs per charge. The Hifi shop also lent me two Sony SBS-XB23 demo models after I purchased the big box so I could directly compare, since these are capable of one-button link to give stereo sound. But while they sounded impressive in the shop (they are surprisingly very bassy for their size), and genuine stereo sound is more immersive, volume isn't replaceable, and as soon as I went over 50km/h (31mph) the Twizy's unique jet engine sound would simply drone them out, which isn't the case with the big XB300 barrel, that one is still capable to slap some bass around the Twizys rear view mirror ears with ease, even when going full tilt at 85km/h (53mph):
Also the smaller speakers, while handy and light, were still too big to mount on a good place:
A better placing would be down there, but then the sound drowned even more:
The big XB-300 is a way better option, as I've now placed it centrally right infront of the drivers seat. It's fixed in place with a velcro loop that goes trough the seats metal base. That may look flimsy but that loop can hold my own weight when used as a footstrap (I've tried it) so it has no problem to keep the box's 3kg in place in any case. It also will not allow movement even during excessive downhill cornering. But it's still very easy to take to box in and out for charging or for external use. Turned upwards so that the high and middle speakers look straight up instead of directly towards my head, the sound comes now centrally towards me from about the upper side of the steering wheel:
The Twizy is already a daily joy to drive, but I've doubled that joy now since I can hoon around with blasting my favourite "Mucke" (engl: awesome music experience). - Ah, yes, I know what you are thinking in this very moment: "But lip, the Twizy isn't really enclosed or isolated, even with the windows in place." - Yeah, but while I would get angry looks from the public in any other car blastic loud music like this, people still smile at me.- It's simply like with a little child, they have the small-and-cute bonus and hence are allowed more leniency for their behaviour, same goes for the Twizy.
And in the future when I want even more immersive sound, I can just buy me a second XB300, link that with my example for true stereo and then place them left and right of the seat! Woof!!
Sure there are some aftermarket options for replacing the speakers with bigger/better ones, but in reality there just isn't enough volume in the roof bar to give good results.
So the easiest update is to simply ignore the integrated system and to buy a modern bluetooth box for placing it right next to the seat, which is what I've done this week, I've got me a big Sony SRS-XG300 party noisemaker:
This thing is awesome, the bass capabilities are truly impressive and bone dry without any unwanted booming. It will also blast music up to 25hrs per charge. The Hifi shop also lent me two Sony SBS-XB23 demo models after I purchased the big box so I could directly compare, since these are capable of one-button link to give stereo sound. But while they sounded impressive in the shop (they are surprisingly very bassy for their size), and genuine stereo sound is more immersive, volume isn't replaceable, and as soon as I went over 50km/h (31mph) the Twizy's unique jet engine sound would simply drone them out, which isn't the case with the big XB300 barrel, that one is still capable to slap some bass around the Twizys rear view mirror ears with ease, even when going full tilt at 85km/h (53mph):
Also the smaller speakers, while handy and light, were still too big to mount on a good place:
A better placing would be down there, but then the sound drowned even more:
The big XB-300 is a way better option, as I've now placed it centrally right infront of the drivers seat. It's fixed in place with a velcro loop that goes trough the seats metal base. That may look flimsy but that loop can hold my own weight when used as a footstrap (I've tried it) so it has no problem to keep the box's 3kg in place in any case. It also will not allow movement even during excessive downhill cornering. But it's still very easy to take to box in and out for charging or for external use. Turned upwards so that the high and middle speakers look straight up instead of directly towards my head, the sound comes now centrally towards me from about the upper side of the steering wheel:
The Twizy is already a daily joy to drive, but I've doubled that joy now since I can hoon around with blasting my favourite "Mucke" (engl: awesome music experience). - Ah, yes, I know what you are thinking in this very moment: "But lip, the Twizy isn't really enclosed or isolated, even with the windows in place." - Yeah, but while I would get angry looks from the public in any other car blastic loud music like this, people still smile at me.- It's simply like with a little child, they have the small-and-cute bonus and hence are allowed more leniency for their behaviour, same goes for the Twizy.
And in the future when I want even more immersive sound, I can just buy me a second XB300, link that with my example for true stereo and then place them left and right of the seat! Woof!!
DamnKraut said:
Looking at ze German baking trays, some of those fellas did cover quite a distance for your meet up. Hats off - must have been quite a few charging stops just to get there.
Granted partially there was some cheating involved: Atleast one Twizy had a selfmade 20Kw CATL battery with a range of 220km (140mi), and another brought his Twizy like Doc Brown brought his DeLorean: In a van: 
But overall some did quite impressive roadtrips to get there. - Me on the other hand I just parked my Twizy on a ferry for a bit and after that had only a short pleasant drive to get to the meeting point.
Btw, that blue Microlino... Function following Form in this case: That massive front flap, it's just utterly stupid. (As is any other Micro-EV that seats 2 people next to eachother like in a regular car). You basicly have to be shamelessly in love with your passenger or your driver to tolerate the tight seating position for more than a few minutes, or the fact that the passenger has to present his or her bent backside up-close to the driver everytime she or he has to get in or out. Also in bad weather when you open the door it rains inside half ouf your car. - A big price to pay for the fact that your bubble car resembles some antique vehicle and because of that looks like a fat frog.
Ah, yes, a bit of ranting brightens up any day.
"So lip, you had if for half a year now and the honeymoon phase is over... do you still like to drive it?"
Answer:
Rear tires were gone at 10'000km (6'210mi), and the front ones have now reached the "stern-look-from-policeman" -state too as seen on this picture, at 12'500km (7'760mi).
Probably going directly to winter rubber this week.
Answer:
Rear tires were gone at 10'000km (6'210mi), and the front ones have now reached the "stern-look-from-policeman" -state too as seen on this picture, at 12'500km (7'760mi).
Probably going directly to winter rubber this week.
Edited by lipadier on Sunday 15th October 09:50
I was looking at the 13kwh replacement batteries today, it is £5k fitted so not cheap. It more than doubles the battery capacity without taking up any more space or weight. Range goes up to 100 miles max (60 miles if used flat out and hilly) which is pretty useful…I expect I will get one if my battery begins to decay.
Caddyshack said:
I was looking at the 13kwh replacement batteries today, it is £5k fitted so not cheap. It more than doubles the battery capacity without taking up any more space or weight. Range goes up to 100 miles max (60 miles if used flat out and hilly) which is pretty useful…I expect I will get one if my battery begins to decay.
I'm on a german Twizy forum and some members there are quite active in building denser and more modern batteries for the Twizy. On the above mentioned meet was a guy with us who had a a 20kw one built in (= range +200km (+125 miles), with a weight of only 109kg (compared to the standard 6kw one with 98kg) = battery technology has marched on quite a lot during the last decade. - As soon as the warranty on my Twizy runs out I'm going to be very VERY interested in such a replacement.Tango13 said:
Does it wheelie too?
Nope, not even on a steep uphill road. Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff