Thursday 17th June 2010

Clio Gordini Arrives Costing £19,650

Stripes and a full kitbag add to Renaultsport Clio's appeal

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We loved our PH test fleet Clio Renaultsport 200, but we'd have liked one of the new Gordini versions even more - being suckers for a classic twin-stripe treatment.

Renault has released price and spec details for the new Clio Gordini today. It will cost £19,650 on the road, and just 500 examples will be available in the UK.

The car features a Malta Blue metallic finish with twin white racing stripes on the bonnet, roof and tailgate, in keeping with its famous predecessors, says Renault. The front bumper is enhanced with a gloss black centre section and white F1-style 'blade' while the door mirrors are also highlighted in white. The exterior styling package is set-off by 17ins Gordini alloy wheels with a polished face and black inner rim.

Inside you get Renaultsport seats in dark grey leather with blue details and Gordini-embossed logo, plus various other detail tweaks and a plate with your car's build number.

As with the standard model there's a choice of two bespoke chassis - the Clio Gordini 200 has a standard 'sport' chassis, but the Cup suspension is available as an option. 'Perfohub' front suspension featuring an independent steering axis front arrangement is standard, as is the naturally-aspirated 2.0-litre engine generating 200hp.

In addition the Gordini's full kitbag includes climate control, curtain airbags, anti-submarining airbags, automatic headlight and wiper activation, cruise control, speed limiter, ESC, 4x20W radio-CD with Bluetooth hands free system with fingertip remote control and multifunctional TunePoint with USB connection, heated and electrically folding door mirrors, double optic headlamps with additional cornering lights, Renault hands free card for automatic unlocking and engine start, height and reach adjustable steering column and extra-tinted rear windows.

If you're not a fan of blue, you can order the car in black with white stripes, or white with anthracite stripes - but we think you'd be slightly missing the point.
Amédée Gordini, who developed almost 200,000 Renault vehicles over a 20-year period, achieved some of the brand's greatest sporting achievements. The Renault 8 Gordini with its bright blue paintwork and twin white stripes was one of his most successful and iconic creations, the company press release reminds us.

[alexpa]

Hopefully Clarkson won't wreck one of these like he did to it's brother

[tommobot]

Er, that seems rather alot?

[briSk]

i said it when this was mooted and i'll say it again "they should have used 'gordini' as the name for the good (trophy/R29KubicaLadaAwesomeSuperAce) versions of the RSeseses rather than some Ghia/VandenPlas effort.

[Crusoe]

pickign out the F1 style front wing is not a good look IMO, like a big pouty baby lip before it bursts out crying.

[Nagra]

£20k for a clio???

Dont get me wrong, I love the Clio (bought a 172 brand new in 2001) but £20k for a Clio???

[Negative Creep]

A 4x20w stereo? Wow, that's really advanced and well worth boasting about

[hornetrider]

So.... no mechanical upgrades whatsoever?

[fathomfive]

That seems to be a tad on the expensive side.

[Not Ideal]

How much..???!!!

[LuS1fer]

Someone's flattened a drinking straw and shoved it in the grille.

[jbi]

lol... 20 grand for a clio

having a laugh :P

[mnkiboy]

That's a big increase for what is purely a cosmetic upgrade. I think SEAT charge an extra £750 for the Ibiza Bocenegra over the standard Cupra, so I don't know how Renault can charge £2000 for this.

[Mutt]

From my experience of buying a 197, I very much doubt anyone will pay anywhere near that. You'll be able to get one for £16k if you shop around and haggle.

[LuS1fer]

The R8 Gordini was hardly a style icon though and had 4 doors to boot. On balance, I'll take the 3 box R8 in proper Gordini French Blue.

[tridave]

Is the Clio any good in this variant, I ask as I work abroad and have a hire car every week and had a bod std Clio and it was ste, I had a new megane the week later and this was really good. Cant understand how the same company make chalk and cheese.

[alolympic]

A heavier 200, kind of misleading calling this one the Gordini, should be totally stripped out to warrant it being a Gordini.

[unpc]

FFS more heritage raping! Make it stop....

[nickpan]

Mutt said:

From my experience of buying a 197, I very much doubt anyone will pay anywhere near that. You'll be able to get one for £16k if you shop around and haggle.

I don't agree. With a limited run of 500 in the UK, I'm sure there are 500 idiots in this country who will run out and buy one.

[tjlazer]

Maybe I'm getting old (30 this year!) but paying 20k on a brand new, shocking looking blue hatchback made by some French wag has all the hallmarks of an impending apocalypse. I could get a 2 year old M coupe for that money or plenty of other good performance machinery with residuals that won't fall off a cliff.

How does the car industry ever expect to sell me a new car or is it that the rest of the country are muppets and don't bother looking around before they go into a car showroom? Bring back cars that cost less than 15k and aren't complete poverty spec or is this simply an anomaly?

[Chris_w666]

I'd rather buy a cup, and spend the difference on trackdays. Seems a very cynical use of a name as a marketing exercise to me.