Fifty years ago a blue Renault with two white stripes down its back would need no introduction as a Gordini special. But today, I’m guessing the youth haven’t a clue about the tuning maestro who breathed some fire into all those Renault models of yesteryear.
And it’s probably a good thing too, because if said youths knew about the trick close-ratio gearboxes, double-barrelled Weber carburettor bodies and disc-brake conversions fitted to the Gordini-tuned Dauphines, R8’s and Renault 12’s of previous decades, they might be disappointed in the Gordini conversion here which involves only cosmetic upgrades.
It’s pretty much the same Clio RS model that’s been available since 2009, but it costs R20 000 more and for the extra dosh you get a pair of white stripes, some white mirror caps, special Gordini badges and blue interior highlights on the seats, steering wheel and gear-lever boot. I sense monsieur Amédée Gordini rolling over in his grave.
To be totally fair, Renault at least stuck all the retro-inspired marketing gear on to an already spicy RenaultSport-tuned package. This means that it gets all kinds of aerodynamic aids such as a front splitter, rear diffuser and extractor vents in the front fenders; a longer wheelbase and wider track; big brakes with four-pot Brembo callipers, and an especially rorty 148kW/215Nm naturally-aspirated two-litre engine.
The Clio Gordini also comes with “Cup” chassis settings, so the 7mm lower springs are 27 percent stiffer in the front and 30 percent at the rear, sway bars are 10 percent firmer and the steering ratio is quickened by 7.5 percent. The body structure’s also welded all along its seams rather than in spots so there’s no flex at all. All this on top of the normal Clio RS’s already extremely taut suspension (normal RS models are available with optional Cup chassis in other markets but not in SA), and I reckon this car is among the hardest damped hatches out there.
On South African highways your eyeballs will rattle like Yahtzee dice in their sockets, but put the Gordini in a smoothly tarred track environment and the heavily compromised suspension settings come into their own. Turn-ins and apexes can be performed so late that it’s almost unfair on the 17” tyres, and so long as the stability-control switch is set to full danger mode you can steer the rear of the car with well timed throttle lifts. I do wish, however, that Renault would include a limited-slip diff as it did in older Megane RS models, because after carrying so much speed through a bend, it’s a pity that so much is lost in wheelspin coming out.
With turbocharging becoming the hot hatch norm, and only Renault and Honda still attempting to squeeze this much from two-litre capacities without assistance from force feeding, engines as fitted to this Gordini are becoming unusual. No, they will never perform as well, especially at Gauteng altitude where as much as 18 percent of oomph is lost to the gods of atmospheric pressure, but there is a pureness here not found in artificially charged motors.
Apply throttle and you can hear gulps of air getting sucked right from the inlet pipe, through the filter, past the throttle body and into the combustion chamber where it gets churned up and spat out the exhausts without any interference from noise-cancelling impeller blades to get in the way.
The throttle response is instantaneous as well, without any lag issues, but I do think that Renault’s ECU mapping could be toned down to make it less sensitive. There are times, especially on take-off, when only partial pedal inputs are required, when the system bucks and sputters a little. One thing’s for sure, the Clio RS likes to be at full throttle.
Renault claims 6.9 seconds as its 0-100km/h number but unsurprisingly our Vbox recorded a best real world (Gauteng altitude) time of 8.5 seconds. Likewise, Renault says the Gordini will cover 400m from a stop in 14.9 but our equipment registered a full second slower. This highly strung two-litre sounds great and is very responsive, but without a turbo it’s severely underpowered compared to other small hot hatches such as the Corsa OPC, Polo GTI and Cooper S.
VERDICT
If it were me I’d save twenty grand and get the normal R259 900 Clio RS. There’s just not enough tangible performance gain on the Gordini special to justify the price jump to R279 900 - let alone the stripes and name associated with it. Yes, the suspension setups will probably gain you half a second per lap, but you’ll need to visit a chiropractor after daily commutes. - Star Motoring