- Doors and Seats
5 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
1.6T, 4 cyl.
- Engine Power
147kW, 240Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (95) 6.3L/100KM
- Manufacturer
FWD
- Transmission
Auto (DCT)
- Warranty
3 Yr, Unltd KMs
- Ancap Safety
5/5 star (2013)
Renault Clio RS: First drive review
The hot-hatch market in Australia just got hotter.
Hard on the heels of pocket-rockets like the Ford Fiesta ST and Peugeot 208 GTi, to name just two, comes the latest incarnation of Renault’s Clio Sport.
Sharp pricing, high specification and some serious dynamic smarts make the new Renault hot-shot a potentially major player in a market that is going from strength to strength as buyers opt for physically smaller cars that retain the performance of big cars.
In the process, the Clio RS has also reinvented itself with some crucial philosophical alterations that will help win it new friends.
For a start, the new car is a five-door hatch rather than the previous car’s three-door layout. Concealed rear door handles help hide the fact, but those who will ever need to ride in the back will be thankful.
A spin-off of the clean-sheet Clio design unveiled earlier this year, the Clio RS also follows the global trend of engine downsizing.
Where the previous generation was powered by a non-turbo two-litre engine, the new version gets a 1.6-litre turbocharged unit beneath its stubby little bonnet.
There’s direct injection and variable valve timing for the engine which is shared with some Nissan models but uses a specific Renault Sport tune for this application.
Power is 147kW and torque is 240Nm, figures that put it right amongst the pack in this end of the market. Renault claims an official fuel consumption figure of 6.3 litres per 100km which equates to 144g of CO2 per kilometre. And that’s despite the Clio not being fitted with stop-start technology.
The other downside is that the Clio prefers a premium-unleaded diet.
Gone is the manual gearbox of previous sporty Clios and in its place is the voguish double-clutch, automatic manual with six forward ratios and shift paddles on the steering wheel.
The suspension is significantly upgraded over the cooking-model Clio and includes dampers with hydraulic bump-stops which amount to a damper-within-a-damper arrangement and allows the suspension to be taut without crashing into larger holes. Or at least crashing more elegantly.
There’s also an electronically controlled front differential with Renault’s own take on torque vectoring that brings the brakes into play to control wheelspin and is definitely a clever inclusion on such a powerful front-drive platform.
An optional Cup specification chassis beefs spring rates 27 per cent at the front and 20 per cent on the rear as well as lowering the ride height 3mm and adding stiffer dampers.
The four-model range starts with the Clio RS which gets quite a bit of kit including automatic headlights, sat-nav, keyless entry and start, automatic wipers, Bluetooth and Renault’s RS Drive which enables three modes with different levels of steering sharpness, throttle sensitivity, gearshift mapping and stability-control intervention.
Despite having just four air-bags, the Clio RS is, like the normal Clio, a five-star crash-test performer.
The Trophy is the upmarket trim level and adds 18-inch wheels, leather trim, heated front seats, a reverse camera, rear parking sensors (optional on the Sport) and climate control air-conditioning.
The other major option is the Cup chassis, meaning the range kicks off with the Sport chassis in base trim at $28,790 then moves to the Cup chassis in base trim at $31,290. The flasher models are the Sport Trophy at $34,290 and the Cup Trophy at $36,790.
Renault Australia expects to sell about 60 per cent of Clio RSs with the Cup Chassis option.
Driving the Clio RS, one thing is immediately obvious; this is a bigger can than previous generations of hot Clios.
Where the older models felt like you could just about put your arms around them from the driver’s seat, this car has a more remote relationship with more distance between you and the dashboard and the base of the windscreen.
There’s also extra width and with the five-door layout, you could imagine the RS stealing some sales from the (slightly) bigger Megane model.
The cabin feels to be of pretty good quality and there are some nice touches such as the piano-black on the centre-stack and some evocative detailing like the glovebox-lid decal and the satin red trim in places.
The front seats are comfy and supportive, too, and don’t necessarily squeeze bigger-framed folk into hunchback positions.
Ergonomically, our biggest gripe would be the placement of the cruise-control master switch on the centre console between the seats and the fact that the gearshift paddles don’t turn with the wheel.
The engine has a raspy edge to it, but full-throttle upshifts don’t reveal the cheeky blatt we’ve come to expect in cars like this with transmission like this one.
But at full noise, it certainly has an aural appeal as well as plenty of urge as the turbo quickly builds boost and musters up those 147 kiloWatts.
For all that, it never really feels as perky as, say, the Fiesta ST, but it’s still a proper hot-hatch in every sense of the term.
There’s a little tug at the steering wheel during full-bore starts in lower gears, but the launch control function seems well calibrated if not a bit irrelevant anywhere but a race-track.
That said, the Clio RS won’t be out of its depth in such a situation.
The grip is very good and the clever front differential certainly does the job of keeping the thing driving forwards rather than slewing sideways when the grippy tyres finally look like giving up.
The ride is a bit of a surprise, too, and where previous Clios have been a bit pitchy, the new car with its extra wheelbase is a much more grown-up proposition.
The Cup suspension is immediately identifiable as a bit firmer, but it’s never what you’d call harsh.
And that’s probably the crux of it really: The Clio RS has grown up.
Some may not like the newfound refinement and slight loss of intimacy, but for others it will suddenly make the Clio RS a true prospect rather than being a car to overlook.
Mind you, overlooked is not something hot Renaults have been in this country recently.
Australia has, for instance, been the second largest market globally for the current Megane RS with only buyers in the car’s home market of France snapping up more of them than we have.
Nuts and bolts
Engine: 1.6-litre turbo 4-cyl
Power: 147kW at 6000rpm
Torque: 240Nm at 1750rpm
Transmission: 6-sp dual clutch auto
Fuel economy: 6.3L/100km
Price: From $28,790 plus on-road costs.