Renaultsport: Renault reveals Clio 197 F1 Team R27

Renaultsport, the sportscar-building wing of the French motor giant, has unveiled the latest addition to its hot-hatch line, the Clio 197 F1 Team R27.

Although technical specification of the car will not be released until the official launch at the Geneva Motor Show in March, some details are known: the engine is the same as the existing Clio 197, but the car benefits from what will become the track-focused Cup chassis, and completely revised suspension. It also gains a handful of detailing extras: 17" anthracite alloy wheels, Recaro front seats, red brake calipers and the F1 Team go-faster stickers.

The F1 Team R27 will be a special edition, made from March to September this year, after which the Cup chassis will become an option on the standard Clio 197.

Graeme Holt, Press Relations Manager for Renault UK, said: "We're very happy that the Cup chassis has come out so soon after the original car. When the first 2-litre Clio came out in 1999, the Cup was years later, so it’s great that we haven't even had to wait 12 months for this one to appear.”

“However, we still don’t expect the uptake to be more than 50% of 197 customers - as it was on the old car - because at the end of the day, the standard car is still a firm, sport chassis.”

Renaultsport has also confirmed it will launch its first ever diesel at Geneva – a Megane variant will get the 175bhp unit from the Laguna GT which will pull it to 62mph in about 7.5 seconds and offer “masses of torque”.

Holt thinks this could be a pivotal launch for Renaultsport: “I think we could literally double the sales of Megane overnight, as there are so many people who can only have diesel company cars. If this new Megane appears on the choice list, everyone will be saying ‘yes please’”.

Holt continued with a promise that Renaultsport are working on a dedicated sports car, in addition to the Renault model derivatives: “There will definitely be a sports car in the next couple of years, a new model. Something more like the Spyder, probably a 2-seater, be that convertible or hardtop, but something that will definitely take advantage of the F1 involvement."

Holt also added that the sports car was a hotly-debated project internally: “There was a long conversation within the company about how wild and high performance should this car be, because we had the option to take the Nissan 350Z as a base and Renaultsport that. But once you’re getting over 30,000 you’re getting into a very crowded market, up against Porsche Boxsters and the like. That’s not been totally ruled out, doing something very wild – a V8 or whatever - but I think the decision will be to make something much more affordable, in the teens of thousands or low twenties.”