Renault Clio RS test drive since 2009 hatchback

The right foreboding

Until recently, I was a little lucky in this life. He lived up to thirty years, and never once drove the fetal (not vegetable) Renault Sport. But, like any fan of machines, theoretically I was prepared by non -balance. The theory here is simple in their classes, the overeating landscapes are eager to tear rivals. And those sitting at the wheel revel in the process, and then excitedly indicate the extraordinary handling of the car.
 
Renault characterizes the often controversial design of individual models, but it is undeniable that the sports unit of the brand beats without a miss. Whatever the blow is a cult car. Even if you consider the life of such a cult of the existence of an individual generation.
I will be impressed by the Renault Sport campaign, which can be described as a sport without decorations. Of course, the pragmatic athlete will find a propulsion in the appearance of the RS, but it is just as much as it was necessary so that the company's marketers would not hang. It’s not enough to teach the car to drive, then it also needs to be sold.
Nevertheless, Clio RS itself is modesty itself. Put Corsa Ops, Seat Ibiza Cupra, Peugeot 207 RC and understand yourself. However, you don’t even have to put it. Obviously, the place of Clio RS is not on the observation observation at midnight, but on Saturday morning in Myachkovo. Inside the traditional sports ennolation is also not found. This is just a Clio top version. Well -assembled, quiet, high -quality. There are no screaming colors here, but the money that could be spent on decorative carbon and imitation of aluminum, the developers seemed to be launched on something else.
 
The eye clings only to massive front chairs with large rollers of support. Having looked closely, you find a mark of zero position on a chubby and a comfortable steering wheel. After sitting a little more, you evaluate conveniently located pedals with aluminum platforms and rubber inserts. A rather large gearbox lever walks clearly and includes transfers easily. Ergonomics are good, the landing is convenient. The first part of my expectations is justified in the sports car everything should be calculated to the smallest detail, the concentration of the pilot cannot be violated.
Since this Clio RS is so emphasized so emphasized and utilized, and there is about the same as competitors, then what, in fact, do we pay? For technology. Fielding of the model did not occur according to the rules of the genre, it was deeper. In addition to the standard set of factory tuning, the violent baby also received a new front suspension (which relates him with the older brother of Megane RS). The design was finalized in such a way as to neglect the typical disadvantages of powerful front -wheel drive machines parasitic moments on the steering wheel with intense acceleration, not the best course stability.
Competitors cannot offer such a deep intervention in the design. It turns out that the charming and steering of RS trump cards.
A rare car from the first meters makes it clear that you were not mistaken in your expectations. This is not even the confidence that the car is not confused before the test series, but rather a premonition of its correctness. It is born from many factors, but appears and gains strength from the first meters of the journey.
My RS with Clio RS was exactly so. At first I heard a lot of good things about him, with full -time acquaintance immediately appreciated the utilitarian external data, then he was pleased with the landing and ergonomics, then started the motor, squeezed out a pleasant tight clutch, clearly inserted the first into the groove and went. I did not have time to make a full turn of the steering wheel five times, to twist the motor even up to 5,000 revolutions and at least four times move the gearbox lever, as this very anticipation-proceeding was born. The time remaining for the test, I only discovered new details of this exclusively driver.
 
The motor expectedly fails at the very bottom, but it does not infuriate me at all and does not depress. Agree, it makes sense if almost two hundred horses were removed from two liters of working volume. I twist the first to four thousand, and there is already an almost kind well, I smack the second. To fall below 4000 rpm is now not included in my plans. After 5 thousand, the most interesting roar of the motor and kick under the ass begin!
So far in our market, the main competitor of the RS is Opel Corsa OPC. We had the honor of getting to know that machine, and now we can trace the difference in the approaches of the Germans and the French to create a hot cake of the B-class.
The Germans made their hatchback obviously refined. All these triangles, a spectacular body kit, a pathos exhaust, an aerodynamic elements plus almost a popular interior. Sports from Corsa is losing a mile away! But you will look closely, and you understand: the authors either overdid it, or simply kept in their heads a slightly different target audience. The steering wheel seemed to be removed from the installation for a computer carrier. Well, the gearbox lever is neither to give or take the joystick handle. I remember that the machine is zealously whistling with a turbine, the bukhahala was exhausted, accelerated well, but the suspension is these rolls, the clinks, the buildup eh! I did not have a feeling of complete unity with Cors. Some damp of running qualities prevented. For full-fledged track-days there was a replacement of the suspension.
The French laid out in the handling of controllability. Clio RS from a rare breed of cars that tuning is strictly contraindicated. This is a thing brought to the brilliance in itself, all components are in an ideal and balanced alliance. Clio surprised me most of all not controllability, dynamics or inhibition, but with magnificent course stability even on a bad road, which is due not only to the presence of a new front suspension, but also by selecting springs with shock absorbers. The energy intensity is amazing! You can have no one to bury where other sports cars are immediately dropped, because the pilots are afraid to crush their teeth and do not want to collect their vertebrae from the chair.
Clio RS denies the statement that on a charged car, movement in civilian conditions, as a rule, is more slow than on ordinary cars. Slow because a hard suspension requires a careful attitude, and low -profile rubber can easily be cut off about an unfamiliar open hatch. The messenger peers stares at the road, slows down, and anneals only in well -known places. Clio anneals everywhere. It seems to be on the air pillow. I have never had a breakdown of the suspension! In corners, the car does not stumble on the bumps and does not shy out of the turn, maintaining a stable contact spot. And the most interesting rolls, as well as clicks with squats, are practically no. In general, the Clio RS chassis is a great example to follow.
Above I ducked a little. Clio controlled also surprised. It can be characterized simply. The car at any speed under the control of the driver. The rotation is close to neutral, and in the corner of Clio it is predictably and smoothly responded to work by the steering wheel and accelerator. Well, what is a small base and the wheel placed in the corners, coupled with an excellent suspension, I think everyone is approximately clear.
And the dynamics is on top. The impressions of it are aggravated by an almost complete absence of trajectory deviations with intensive acceleration. Once again, they are the advantages of a special front suspension. If you are an attentive reader, then you must have looked closely at the Brembo inscription on the front calipers. The cooperation of the companies was fruitful. Clio RS has magnificent grip brakes with excellent feedback on the pedal. Powerful and tireless. Finally, I feel like a full-fledged person, because I filled a serious gap in my driver biography. And at the same time, he was not deceived in his forebodings. However, now I understand that in the case of Clio RS it was impossible to do this.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
Front suspension
The front suspension with the dignified fists first appeared at the elder in the rank of Megane RS. Its essence is to reduce the shoulder of the running -in: the wheel axis here does not penetrate the support of the shock absorber rack, but the imaginary center of the wheel. The smaller the shoulder of the running -in, the less parasites on the steering wheel of the front -wheel drive car. A similar scheme is also used on the new Ford Focus also RS.
Engine
The two -liter engine of the new Clio RS added 18 horsepower by installing new camshafts and crankshaft, as well as a system of change in gas distribution phases.
Aerodynamics and cooling
Here you can see how the rear diffuser and gills work in the front wings at speed. Even an analogy with F-1 is observed
The history of the model
The story of the charged Clio is rooted at the beginning of the nineties of the last century. In 1991, the light saw the 16s modification, which was equipped with a 1.8-liter 8-valve engine with a capacity of 110 hp. A year later, the engine was changed to a more powerful 137 hp, and the name on RSI.
A little later, the Formula 1 Williams-Renault team won the designers' Cup, in honor of which the French released the even more charged Clio Williams CO with a 150-horsepower two-liter engine. The cult was born.
In 1998, a new generation of Clio appeared, and with it the first RS. The machine was equipped with a two -liter engine, the capacity of which at first was 167, and then 179 hp.
Leonty Tyutelev
 
 

 

A source: Motor magazine [January 2009]