Renault Clio RS 16 Concept Car
Quite fittingly, Renault unveiled the newest brain child from its Sport division in Monaco days before the big race. To celebrate 40 years in the business, Renault Sport chose one of the most iconic locations, home of the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, to show the public what creativity, sporting genius and years of experience can achieve in a mere matter of months.
The Clio RS 16 is the latest concept car from the F1 experts at Renault Sport. It combines racing expertise with road car knowledge and the result is the “highest-performance road-going Renault Sport car ever,” and it only took five months to come into fruition. This Clio RS 16 is what happens when you cross a 275bhb, 2.0l turbo engine, which creates 360Nm of torque and normally powers the Megane RS 275 Trophy-R, with the body of a Clio R.S.
“Our aim was to produce a concept car with genuinely outstanding performance credentials. On paper, producing a Clio RS powered by our most potent engine was an extremely appealing idea, but we had to make sure it was feasible,” said Patrice Ratti, managing director of Renault Sport Cars.
Housing the engine, transmission and cooling systems of the Megane inside the Clio did pose an interesting challenge, but Renault Sport rose to the challenge and met it head on. They installed an Akrapovič twin exhaust system, which roars like a lion. The suspension was engineered to fit with the Clio’s “outstanding performance characteristics.”
One of the necessary modifications made was widening the Clio RS 16 and adding 19”wheels, and the result is an impressive, sporty show stopper, which is further emphasised by the checked patterned LED lighting feature that uses multi-faceted reflector technology. The car is striking and bold in Renault’s signature Sirius yellow, and is trimmed with black gloss detailing that is in line with Renault’s Formula 1 colours.
The RS 16 is currently only on show as a concept car, but given the overwhelmingly positive reaction, who know? Perhaps this will go into production some time in the future.
