Renault Sport Clio R3 Rally Car: Riding shotgun

If you thought the life of a professional rally driver was demanding, try slotting into the navigators seat -- to call it challenging would be an understatement.

If you become tongue-tied, make a slight pace note miscalculation or blink too slowly, the bloke sitting next to you (and who is putting his entire trust in your words, and driving the wheels off the car) could easily make a mistake. Or worse.

Suffice it to say it's a nerve-wracking experience. So as Australian rally ace Scott Pedder pushed his fire-breathing, back-firing, highly-strung 2.0-litre Renault Clio R3 rally car to the limit on a tight and winding rally test stage at break-neck speeds near Canberra, you can understand why I struggled to read my 'personalised' pace notes.

Despite the five-point safety harness and ultra-tight race seats, you're pushed and pulled in all directions as the car spears along gravel roads at breakneck speeds. You half head-butt the dash as the brakes come on strong. It's remarkable how much the car moves around on the dirt.

And considering drive is sent to the front wheels only of this loud, angry and very fast French rally car, I reckon I can be forgiven for wondering how on God's Great Earth, the Clio power-slid round corners like a dirt devil?

Whatever arcane magic has been wrought on Pedder's rally car, the return of a factory-backed Renault team to the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) in 2013 represents a significant fillip for the sport Down Under. It's indicative that the series is growing stronger since it was revamped in 2011/2012 .

After fanging around the gravel test track with Scott Pedder, motoring.com.au had a chance to chat to the driver and ARC series 'boss' about all things Clio R3.

Powered by a naturally aspirated 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine that produces 184kW/245Nm (it sounds more like a banzai motorcycle engine at full tilt!), the little Clio can really hustle. And as a factory built racer according to Mr Pedder, it is "ready to go pretty much off the boat from France".

"We change some things from a personal point of view. I like a different suspension setup than they run over there [in Europe] for customers, but it was turn the switch and pretty much go and adjust from there," Mr Pedder told motoring.com.au.

"The problem with these cars is they do things too well," laughed Mr Pedder, who confirmed that he could be driving a turbocharged version of the next gen Renault Sport Clio in 2014.

"Yeah, the R3 Clio 4 comes out towards the end of the year in Europe, so I think it's going do its first event at the end of the year in France.

"From all reports it'll be a fantastic little thing. Hopefully everything goes according to plan and we'll see one of those [in the ARC] next year," he said.

With one of six ARC rallies already completed, the Renault Sport team is off to a strong start, having won the opening day of competition at the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship in Canberra. While the overall winner was Honda's Eli Evans, Scott Pedder grabbed second place -- for the car's first competitive outing in Australia a very positive result.

The next rally is in Western Australia where the Renault Sport team expects to go one better and takes its first win in the modern era.

So does the hackneyed "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" maxim hold true for rallying?

"I think potentially, yeah," said Mr Pedder.

"The information out there changes it a little from what it used to be, but for niche cars like this... If you're a potential buyer of an RS 200 Clio and you can see that car on the weekend hopefully winning races, it might swing them across to buying them."

Renault has a strong rallying heritage in Australia but you have to rewind the clock a ways.

It was 1970 -- the last time Renault threw its support behind an ARC tilt -- that local legend Bob Watson famously took out the championship driving a Renault R8 Gordini.

Which begs the question, could the Gordini brand return to motorsport in Australia?

"I hope so, that'd be a very good marketing move -- particularly [the] Alpine [nameplate]. There's a lot of heritage there... I think a bit of retro is good, I don't mind a bit of retro," grinned Mr Pedder.

We couldn't leave without asking Mr Pedder about some of the biggest influences in the modern era of rally racing, and the name Ken Block was quick to surface -- the man who made his name with his insane 'gymkhana' videos on YouTube.

"He has been the most important person in rallying in the world -- possibly ever -- certainly in the last 10 years," said the ARC boss.

"And he is a freak in terms of his driving ability. He probably hasn't shone on the WRC rally stages, but what he does from a motoring point of view and what he does around the gymkhana stuff is absolutely phenomenal.

"What he's been able to do is bring rallying -- and probably more of a stretch, motorsport -- into the mainstream, particularly for the younger generation. It's very hard to get the younger gen into motorsport, but he's been able to that very successfully and motorsport owes a lot to him for that."

It was a surreal day to play co-driver in hardcore rally car, and it's clear that Scott Pedder has serious driver skills. Could he Australia's version of Ken Block?

"I'm probably too old for that now!" laughs Mr Pedder, until we point out Block is nine years his senior...

There's still time, Scotty.