seriously doubt it, ive got 2 mates with 1.6 escorts (well sorry 1.6 injection escorts, for some reason they always add the injection bit when talking about their cars lol) and my 1.2 16v starts to pull on both of them, and thats before we touch the corners.
i was talking about later 1.6 zetec escorts, about 11 secs to 60 if we're getting all geeky, the clio is something like 13.5 (and i rememeber renault put in small type in the brochure with 15" wheels they are even slower) so being generous thats the difference between a 1.6 clio and the 172, don't think they are the same speed
Got a video of mine doing 0-62mph in around 10.5 seconds, 14" steelys are exact same rolling radius as a 15" with 185/55 tyres, mine has 195/50 which is even smaller, but to be honest you wont notice a difference at all
so id say there would be nothing in it between mine and a
good 1.6 escort putting out standard power, but i know for a fact that mine puts out arround the 80bhp mark give or take a few assuming the 5 or 6 other 1.2s ive drove have been arround the standard 75bhp
and this 1.6 zetec engine im sure is pretty similar to the 115ps 1.8 zetec engine my mate had in a mondeo he bought as a run arround for winter that "wasnt to bad and would give my wee clio a run" it managed to keep up for a bit