The tasty new Clio Renaultsport 200 goes on sale in the UK next month, with a range of performance upgrades and priced from £15,750.
New front has 'F1 blade' styling
The Renaultsport 200 is set-apart visually from its 197 Cup predecessor by a new frontal physiognomy blessed with an ‘F1 Blade’ lower grille that replaces the earlier ‘moustachioed’ look. The 200 also brings more dynamically-styled headlamps with black backgrounds beneath the glass, lightly re-styled rear lamps and bumper, and more prominent tail-pipes exiting either side of the ‘unique-in-class’ diffuser. Eye-catching new colours are also available, including pearlescent Alien Green, Mercury, and the stunning pearlescent Liquid Yellow that was previously only available on the 197 F1 Team R27 special edition.
The new front-end apparently reduces aerodynamic drag by a co-efficient of 0.02 to 0.753 (for those who pretend to understand such things), but the most significant improvements to the new model lie beneath the surface.
The new front end in detail
As the name suggests, power is up from the old car’s 197hp to 200hp delivered at 7100rpm. However the real story under the bonnet is a handy 20 percent increase in torque at low revs (beneath 3000rpm) courtesy of a new cylinder head and mapping for the 2.0 16V (F4R RS) engine.
Renaultsport has also shortened the first, second and third gear ratios for punchier low-end acceleration. Quoted performance figures are 0-62mph in 6.9secs, and a top speed of 141mph.
The mighty 312mm front and 300mm rear brakes are carried over from the 197, as is the independent steering axis front suspension designed to reduce torque steer.
Twin tail pipes now more obvious
As before here are two basic versions of the new model. The £15,570 Clio Renaultsport 200 Cup is the purer driving machine, with suspension now 15 percent stiffer than the 197 Cup, and a 7mm lower ride height than the Renaultsport 200 which is the more fully-optioned version of the new model. In fact the £16,570 Renaultsport 200 gets nearly 40kgs of extra goodies (all-up weight is 1240kgs vs. 1204 for the Cup), and to emphasise its more luxurious nature the damper settings are 15 percent softer than in the Renaultsport 197 – although once again you can specify the sportier Cup chassis as a £400 option on the more luxurious edition.
It’s also worth mentioning the new integrated satnav now available on the Renaultsport 200 and across the newly facelifted Clio range. Costing just £450, the new set-up has been developed in league with TomTom and looks quite a bargain with its 5.8ins screen and full TomTom functionality.
Interior with new Carminat TomTom