THIS WEEK

The pared-down RS16

should produce about
225bhp per tonne

New 271bhp RS16

is hottest Clio yet

Renault Sports hardcore Clio RS16 concept gets Mganes 2.0-litre

turbo engine and a manual gearbox; limited production run possible

10 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 1 JUNE 2016

enault Sport has revealed

the fastest model in
its 40-year history,
the 271bhp Clio RS16,
choosing the Friday of the
Monaco Grand Prix meeting
for a special high-speed
demonstration of its prototype,
driven by Renault Formula 1
driver Kevin Magnussen.
The RS16, officially a
concept, combines the 2.0-litre
turbo engine and manual
gearbox of the Mgane RS 275
Trophy-R the firms quickest
car to date and a recent
Nrburgring front-drive record
holder with the lighter and

The prototype was given a

high-speed run by Renault
F1 driver Kevin Magnussen

smaller Clio RS body, adding a

selection of exotic RS running
gear, including some from its
range of competition cars.
Renault hopes the car will be as
prominent in RS history as the
mid-engined Renault R5 Turbo
and the more recent Clio V6.
Renault Sport Cars
managing director Patrice
Ratti said the somewhat
crazy idea to build the RS16
which was developed under
the codename KZ 01 was first
discussed last October, but the
go-ahead wasnt given until
December, leaving five months
to build two prototypes.

Theres little doubt that

an RS16 would threaten
the Nrburgring front-drive
record (currently held
by a Volkswagen Golf GTI
Clubsport S), but no formal
plan has been announced. The
Mgane Trophy-R produced
209bhp per tonne, whereas
the Clio prototype, not yet
optimised for weight but
believed to be about 100kg
lighter, has nearer 225bhp per
tonne, plus extra agility and a
smaller frontal area.
Renault wont say as much,
but as well as marking its
makers 40th anniversary,

the RS16 represents a bid

by Renault Sport to protect
its reputation for making
desirable high-performance
Clios. The current Clio RS 200
has found less favour with UK
buyers than previous models,
mainly because the traditional
normally aspirated 2.0-litre
engine and six-speed manual
gearbox have been replaced by
a softer 1.6-litre turbo engine
and a six-speed dual-clutch
automatic gearbox.
Even a subsequent, harderedged 220 Trophy version
hasnt entirely fixed the
problem, but Renault insists

Modified bodywork
includes a rear wing
from a Clio Cup racer

1 JUNE 2016 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 11

 the combination of turbo

engine and paddle-shift box
is popular in new markets and
sales have not fallen.
If the RS16 gets the
go-ahead, it could be built
in one of two ways: as a lowvolume product at Alpines
Dieppe factory or by an outside
coachbuilder using Renaultsupplied components. Rattis
ideal would be production
of two to three cars a day in

Dieppe, at a price of about

45,000 (34,000) in France,
probably translating to a price
of 40,000 here. There would
be a batch of cars, much like
the Mgane Trophy-R, of which
250 were built. If the RS16 were
made in the same numbers,
production would probably
take four to six months and
then stop, because at that
stage the current Clio would
only have two years left to run.

Juggling has been needed

to locate the cooling pack
and Akrapovic exhaust

The 19in Speedline

alloys hide 360mm
Brembo discs up front

Renault Sport bosses say

they wont reach a decision
on RS16 production until the
summer but are adamant
that they would like to make
the car, provided the costs of
hand-building and bespoke
components allow a price that
will attract buyers.
First whispers of the RS16
project emerged at Renaults
launch of its Formula 1 team at
the vast Technocentre, west
of Paris, in February. With
the project only weeks old,
Ratti revealed its bare bones
in a confidential conversation
and invited Autocar to a
technical preview at Renault
Sports headquarters at
Les Ulis, a design centrecum-race shop carefully
set up, in one of its major
strengths, to be independent
of the parent company.
Four weeks later, the
company revealed two partbuilt prototypes: a black driving
mule that would be used to
tune the cars all-important
dynamics and an eye-catching
show car, gold in colour, which
Magnussen would demonstrate
to the crowds in Monaco. That
car is also booked to appear
at this months Goodwood
Festival of Speed.
At Les Ulis, the complexity
of the cars build was fully
revealed. The turbocharged
2.0-litre Mgane engine
fits snugly, along with its sixspeed manual gearbox, but
mounting them has required
much redesigning and the
adaptation of parts from the
Mgane, Espace and even the
Kangoo. In particular, there
is an elegant new machined
engine top mount.
One piece of good news is
that the engines extra weight is
more or less offset by a lighter
gearbox, so nose weight is
little altered. Weight reduction
is further aided by the use of
an ultra-compact lithium ion
battery that saves 15kg. A
significant amount of juggling
has been needed in order to

Understated black
RS16 is one of two
prototypes built

12 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 1 JUNE 2016

ST E V E C R O P L E Y

Will the RS16 be built?

ITS HARD TO imagine that
Renault Sport would go to
the trouble of engineering
the RS16, showing its inner
workings to journalists and
publicising it so widely at
the Monaco GP without
bringing it to production.
There are many good
reasons. First, Renault
Sport needs the buzz this
car can create more than
it has for years. While its
Mgane RS models are still
fast and desirable, their
look has been superseded
by a new shape for the
rest of the range, and a
proportion of buyers are
more curious about newshape models than buying
older ones. To complicate
matters, Renault Sport
has been knocked off its
former perch as maker of
the fastest front-drive car
at the Nrburgring, and
that matters in this market.
But the big issue
concerns the Clio. For all
the company protestations
that buyers in new markets
love the 1.6-litre turbo
engine with paddle-shift
locate the larger intercooler,
the rest of the complex cooling
pack and the new Akrapovic
twin-pipe exhaust system,
which produces a distinctive,
energetic sound.
The biggest hurdle is
invisible, engineers say.
Change an engine today
and you must change many
associated components, such
as the fuel system and even
the instrumentation and the
Clio and Mgane electrical
architectures were never
built to talk to one another.
Considerable electronic
adaptation was needed,

gearbox, the UK remains a

leader in the acceptance of
fast Renaults, and the car
has had a cool reception
here. Renault Sport needs
a king-hit to keep its star
high; if you have a business
that sells 35,000 cars and
generates 500 million a
year in revenue, you cant
afford to let it slip.
The RS16 has all the
hallmarks of a lay-down
winner. Our ride in it didnt
confirm that outright, but
it did three-quarters of the
job. Company insiders say
the car is expensive to build
and insist it must make a
profit. But we suspect its
role in keeping the Renault
Sport flame burning
brightly is more important,
and delays are more likely
to be over production
scheduling than money.

especially to achieve the

showroom levels of durability a
Renault Sport car would need
for production and to ensure
chassis systems such as ABS
and stability control work well.
To cope with the Trophy-Rs
266lb ft torque output,
Renault Sport engineers have
reinstated the torque steerreducing independent steering
axis front suspension layout,
branded PerfoHub, which was
dropped from the current Clio.
This entailed designing an allnew suspension upright and
machining individual items
from aluminium alloy billets,

THIS WEEK

Clios tracks have been

extended by 60mm and
hlins dampers are fitted
although the new design also
allowed a space-saving layout
of the steering linkages. The
front suspension is still by
MacPherson struts, but the
RS16 uses super-sophisticated
Mgane Trophy-R adjustable
dampers by hlins. The brakes
are 360mm Brembo steel
discs, grafted onto aluminium
hubs, from the Trophy-Rs
optional Nrburgring pack.
The rear axle comes from
Renault Sports R3T factory
rally car, a strengthened
twist-beam component said
to be around 50% stiffer
than standard. The car runs
standard Clio RS rear discs,
also by Brembo, and the wheels
are 19in Speedline Turini
alloys, which are well known
by Renault Sport owners.
However, accommodating the
wheels, fitted with 235/35
Michelin Pilot Sport tyres,
and a 60mm increase in the
front and rear track widths
required fairly radical body
modifications to maintain
clearances.
The standard wings are
cut back then covered with
handsome composite arch
extensions, linked by side
skirts. These, along with the
roof spoiler culled from the Clio

Cup factory racer and claimed

to deliver 40kg of downforce at
125mph, are the most obvious
visual changes. The car also
gets a blacked-out grille with
its front splitter modified
to improve airflow to the
intercooler, plus a novel set of
chequered flag running lights.
At the rear, the diffuser is
standard, although the outlets
for the Akrapovic exhaust
system are new.
Apart from a new gearlever
sprouting prominently from
the centre console, the RS16 is
little different from a standard
Clio RS inside, although its rear
seats have been removed to
save weight and as another way
of announcing its special focus.
Ratti cant yet say whether
the RS16 will hit production,
but if he gives the green
light in July or August and
Alpine could find enough
manufacturing capacity for
a batch of 200-250 cars
production might begin before
the end of the year, which
could result in UK customers
receiving their cars in the first
months of next year.
STEVE CROPLEY
Renault Sport special
starts on p40

Riding shotgun in the RS16

NOT LONG BEFORE the
RS16s Monaco debut, I went
to Renaults Aubevoye test
centre, 50 miles north-west
of Paris, to ride in the black
prototype on a smoothly
flowing two-mile handling
track. I was lucky to go with
David Praschl, the cars chief
development driver, who
knew the car inside out and
had played a leading hand in
tuning its chassis. Already
settled in the left-hand seat
when I arrived, he smiled
and held the door open. The
engine idled benignly.
It wasnt benign. Praschl
had done lots of laps already
you could smell the brakes
and we erupted away from
a standstill. My recollection
is of unstinting acceleration,
well into three figures. In the
first braking area, there was
no evidence of the noseheaviness Id half expected;
in fact, the car felt downright
light and superbly good at
changing direction. Praschl
hardly seeming to steer as
he stroked the car along

with slick gearchanges

via a proper gearlever
at 6500rpm.
This was a warm day,
so we were leaving rubber
everywhere. Most of the
circuits corners were good
for 60 to 90mph, but the
RS was especially handy
in slower ones, showing off
its terrific power-to-weight
ratio on the exit. I looked
deliberately for torque steer
as Praschl accelerated
hard but couldnt see his
wrists reacting against any.

Instead, I enjoyed the way his

skill combined with the cars
through sweepers; he set
the car up in understeer,
then oversteer and then
neutrally in the same long
corner on successive laps.
Too soon, it was over.
Back at Les Ulis, weeks
earlier, a team member had
said: We excel at chassis
development here. You will
see. It hadnt struck me as
excessively modest at the
time, but it would seem he
was right. SC

1 JUNE 2016 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 13