ABDC: Renault Clio RS220 Trophy 2016 Review

Renault Clio RS220 Trophy
Australia's Best Driver's Car

12th

What makes Australia's Best Driver's Car (ABDC) unique is its inherent criteria. It's all about emotions, not equations, feel not facts; if you will. That's what sets it aside from those oft-boring empirical offerings from some outlets. Importantly, those very criteria allow a huge range of possible cars into the mix. We reckon that, if the thing lights your wick, it should be given an opportunity to be here. And that's the very reason the Renault Clio RS220 Trophy is among our finalists. It offers a driving experience rich indeed.

The Clio RS220 Trophy is the hero offering in the Renault Clio line-up. It all came about when Renault Sport took the brand's turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol RS engine plans by the scruff of the neck and dragged them into the design room, only letting it back out after it had recorded the impressive numbers of 162kW and 280Nm. We can largely thank an over-boost function in fourth and fifth gears for all that.

The 220 in the moniker denotes 220 hp and in a neat piece of Franco-marketing shtick, we only get 220 units here in good old Oz. Yep, you can call that built-in exclusivity, right from the get go.

This is a brilliant taut chassis that revels in hard cornering in that delectable, blown four-cylinder Euro sports car way. Of course, the Clio wasn't the quickest contender, nor the most wildly sporty offering on test. But, bung it hard into some of Tassie's finest twisty blacktop and the RS220 brings a maniacal grin to your face, and a happy French accent to your howls of delight.

It's 20mm lower at the front and 10mm lower at the rear (where Renault's also stiffened up the suspension by 40 per cent) than the 'standard' Clio RS200, but ride is pretty good considering the car's brief. You know you are in a sporty, but your retinas are not shaken loose in the manner of some of the car's rivals.

Testers noted that the only thing really missing from the Trophy's armoury of clever fast stuff is what every hot front-driver really needs – a limited slip diff. Spinning up the inside front wheel robbed the car of deserved slingshot exits from the Apple Isle's world-famous decreasing radius corners, defying it's nimble nature. The Trophy's intelligent mapping, which ensures tidy delivery of all those happy ponies high in the rev range, had it seeing off some much more powerful rivals when the going got very tight indeed. An LSD, please Renault.

As part of the RS Drive function, three drive modes are available; Normal, Sport and Race. RS Drive also has Launch Control and the ability to perform multiple downshifts at once by keeping the paddle held. Race mode is fully manual only and with the nannies switched off.

It's a rev-hound, so keeping it spinning hard offers the best result when pushing on. Some wanted a little more off the bottom, but a mid-capacity turbo-four boasting these sorts of number is probably always going to see it make its power up top. As a hot-four tragic, I found the burst of real power at the higher reaches just about perfect. The pot of go-gold at the end of the rev-rainbow, if you wanna get poetic about it all…

The Clio's dual-clutch transmission delivers pretty precise shifts via steering column paddles. All judges bar one were united in their criticism of the paddles, which remain static while the steering wheel is turned, making them impossible to reach when turned in hard. Commentary like “This one shifts quickly, but the paddle set-up is simply flawed”. A shame really, given it really represents a simple fix for the Renault boffin team.

The seats came in for great praise, along with the general layout of the cabin. Neat sports presentation and smart ergos added to the universal satisfaction levels among the panel of judges. The car rolls on 18-inch alloy wheels shod with nicely sticky 205/40-aspect Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres. It also comes with rear parking sensors and has Renault's 7.0-inch R-Link multimedia touchscreen with satellite navigation. It's nice inside, without being a techno bordello; a set-up that besets some sporty hatches. Call it Euro-classy.

Yep, the RS220 Trophy is a stack of fun. It's a package that delivers screaming revs, wrapped neatly in a chassis that promotes super-late braking and impossible early power application at exit, no matter how tight the going.

That's called sports competency in anyone's language, and that alone gains it a much warranted entry into Australia's Best Driver's Car 2016.

2016 Renault Clio RS200 Trophy pricing and specification:
Price: $39,990 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 162kW/260Nm
Transmission: Six-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 6.3/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 144g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star EuroNCAP

motoring.com.au’s 2016 Australia’s Best Driver’s Car

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