Category: Hot Hatchbacks 
Price Range: No data available
Race car looks, Recaro seats, sharp handling, incredible value.
Needs air conditioning, engine needs to be worked hard, lack of steering feel.
The most focused, hardcore, best-driving hot hatch money can buy.
Don't understand the Cup philosophy? You will if you sit behind the wheel.
The French firm has been so intent on losing weight that it has even discarded the reach adjustment for the steering wheel, making it a little more challenging to get comfortable behind the wheel than the regular 197.
Helping compensate, our car was fitted with a pair of optional Recaro sport seats (£850) that - surprisingly, given their firmness - provide high levels of comfort and hold your body in a vice-like grip through quick corners.
Off the main road, the Cup revisions soon make sense. Find some tricky snaking undulating B-roads and in no time at all the lightweight Clio begins to come alive, feeling far more agile and capable than the standard 197.
The Cup chassis lowers ride height by 7mm and stiffens the springs up front by 27% and at the rear 30%. This enables the Clio to carry phenomenal speed through corners, even in the cold slippery conditions we experienced, turn-in was always faithful and grip levels high, but not high enough to ruin the interaction with the Clio.
Luckily, the stiffened suspension doesn't ruin the 197's composure - it improves it, shrugging off bumps and imperfections that would unnerve many of its competitors.
What the Clio does lack is an ability to communicate accurately through the steering rack, with a disappointing vagueness concerning what the front wheels are up to. The steering, despite more tinkering from Renaultsport, is also still too light, especially at low speeds - a problem that also afflicts the standard car.
On the subject of speed, the Clio Cup, at times, doesn't feel quite as quick as the on-paper performance, the normally aspirated 2.0-litre performing an uncanny impression of a high-performance Honda VTEC lump. In other words, it demands to be thrashed hard before it begins to feel as quick as the 6.9-second time Renault claims for the 0-62mph dash.
Part of the reason is that the Clio's modest 158lb-ft doesn't come into play until the engine is spinning very rapidly at 5,500rpm. This narrows the power band considerably, but when you're in the mood it adds to the excitement of grabbing another gear before the rev limiter calls time at 7,500rpm.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Renault Clio RenaultSport
wrote on 28 08 2007