Cup snippet out of EVO mag

[DanG]

Anyone read the little snippet at the side of the page in this months Evo

Where it said that the Cup had proven so popular the renault are thinking of discontinuing the 172 and just offering cups with ABS etc....

In other words they mean badgin all the cars up as cups but reverting them back to their heavier state ie: what a 172 is...

I hope they cotton on that everyone has bought a cup due to its stripped down lightweight-ness...idiots.

 

[RobFenn]

Yeah i started this thread on Monday i think. Good idea in my view.

-Rob

 

[RSTDL]

Idiots indeed - a cup in mondial blue with leather aircon is a bloody 172 - tw*ts - if id wanted that I would have bought it - anyway as Jeremy says production ends in September /October - make way for the new 1200 clio model in the new year!

 

[Eddd]

Good marketing actually. Once the requisite number of homologation cars are out the door, they can shift some more mainstream cars capitalising on the percieved value of the Cup name. Everybody wins. The customer gets the options he wants and Renault gets to shift a bunch of more profitable units.

 

[Viv172]

Excuse the ignorance but whats a homologation car ??

 

[Ian_182]

i hope renault see sense and dont go ahead with this.the cup is a different car to the standard 172 and to blend them together would upset the balance.the 172 is refined and the cup is a raw trackday car.a few years ago the williams was launched and look how much of a hit that was.there is a chance to create another legend in the cup as long as its left alone

 

[Eddd]

Renault had to build 2500 Ragnotti/Cup versions in order to get a number of changes homologated into the FIA book. To homologate a car requires lots of paperwork describing the technical bits in great detail, and proof that the number required was built.

With the Ragnotti, Renault got a lower minimum weight, wider track, lower ride height and probably a couple other details which make a difference on the circuits and stages. You would have to read the full homologation papers to tell exactly what they did. Even such things as gear ratios have to be homologated.

There are many famous photographs of a yard at the Porsche factory with all the cars of a certain type assembled together. They did it for the 917 and the SCRS, all 20 of them, as they were a Group B evolution. In group B, only 200 cars needed to be built, and 20 of an Evolution. In Group A and N 5000 used to be required along with 500 for each evolution. The present requirement seems to be 2500.