200 Cup, 435d, 2xMX5
Happy holidays all!
For as long as I've been driving, Renaultsport have been making drivers' cars and I've always deeply admired them for it. As a Honda man I felt like they had taken over the mantle for making exciting and engaging affordable cars. With the low income of a student I read Evo magazine cover to cover and built up the iconic cars such as the Clio Trophy and then R26.R as real working class heroes; the sort of cars I would aspire to own once working full time.
Jump forward a decade and despite being a massive driving enthusiast and having owned quite a number of different cars, I've never dipped my toe into the Renaultsport pool until now.
A little about my motoring past, I started off with classic Minis as my father spent his working life building engines for them. I had (and rolled) a 998cc as my first car before progressing, having learnt to drive a bit, to a well modified Clubman.
From there I went Japanese with a series of mk2 Honda CRXs, modified to varying degrees, then an S2000 and more recently I got into trackdays and started a love affair with MX5s.
My partner and I are now fortunate enough to have a lovely BMW 435d as our nice car, I have a fairly ridiculous, borderline time attack, Honda-powered MX5 track car and a share in another MX5 as a cheap winter track slag. Our second car, used mainly for running to the train station and about town has been an Audi A2, but I desperately missed having a small, fun, manual road car.
That brings us up to date and we have replaced the Audi with a Clio 200 Cup.
I was looking at R26s (couldn't afford the .R) and other similar hot hatch alternatives, but decided I preferred the more modern feel and mechanical simplicity of the Clio.
Despite the car having utter crap tyres (why do people do this on drivers cars?), I've been thoroughly impressed with the little terrier! It's just so much fun and I can't believe Renault make something so focused as a normal, full production road car! For the first time in a while I keep going out in the evenings and just driving! :smiley:
As you can tell, I can ramble on a bit so I'll leave it there and pop some pictures of the Clio here, I'm chuffed with it!
For as long as I've been driving, Renaultsport have been making drivers' cars and I've always deeply admired them for it. As a Honda man I felt like they had taken over the mantle for making exciting and engaging affordable cars. With the low income of a student I read Evo magazine cover to cover and built up the iconic cars such as the Clio Trophy and then R26.R as real working class heroes; the sort of cars I would aspire to own once working full time.
Jump forward a decade and despite being a massive driving enthusiast and having owned quite a number of different cars, I've never dipped my toe into the Renaultsport pool until now.
A little about my motoring past, I started off with classic Minis as my father spent his working life building engines for them. I had (and rolled) a 998cc as my first car before progressing, having learnt to drive a bit, to a well modified Clubman.
From there I went Japanese with a series of mk2 Honda CRXs, modified to varying degrees, then an S2000 and more recently I got into trackdays and started a love affair with MX5s.
My partner and I are now fortunate enough to have a lovely BMW 435d as our nice car, I have a fairly ridiculous, borderline time attack, Honda-powered MX5 track car and a share in another MX5 as a cheap winter track slag. Our second car, used mainly for running to the train station and about town has been an Audi A2, but I desperately missed having a small, fun, manual road car.
That brings us up to date and we have replaced the Audi with a Clio 200 Cup.
I was looking at R26s (couldn't afford the .R) and other similar hot hatch alternatives, but decided I preferred the more modern feel and mechanical simplicity of the Clio.
Despite the car having utter crap tyres (why do people do this on drivers cars?), I've been thoroughly impressed with the little terrier! It's just so much fun and I can't believe Renault make something so focused as a normal, full production road car! For the first time in a while I keep going out in the evenings and just driving! :smiley:
As you can tell, I can ramble on a bit so I'll leave it there and pop some pictures of the Clio here, I'm chuffed with it!
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