Fun fact, the phase 1 cars where built by TWR in Uddevalla, Sweden. In a part of the Volvo factory also building the C70. Must of the car builders where former Volvo and SAAB employees that had experience building cars in a totally different way. One of them was my brother, who learned how to bend, hammer a grind parts that really didn't fit well together. He and a colleague borrowed a pre series car for a drive during lunch time on a snowy winter day. You can imagine what happened. They did a 180 in a corner but luckily no damage. They drove really gently back to TWR.

Design definetely stood the test of time, looks just as good as back in the day for me.

I used to be a liason engineer at Nedcar in the Netherlands who made the Volvo S40 and Mitsubushi Carisma who used a Renault engine, there was a Renault engineer there who i got to know, he took the job so he could buy the Clio V6 at a 30% discount, I remember the day his delivery was confirmed he resigned!!

Bloody love the Clio V6. I don’t care that they’re not the last word in dynamics….it’s a Clio with a V6 where there should be rear seats. 😂 I think they look fab.

I miss the days when the French did mental things like this.

There's only 1, of a total of 9 owned, for sale in Australia at the moment with an asking price of $150,000 AUD.

A Beetle RSi would be a great follow up to this one 😃

It's not the case that it was redesigned because the reviews were bad. TWR were still mid development of the v6 when the Clio had already been face lifted by Renault, so the phase 1 was released as it was at the time and development of the car  (still by TWR, not Renault) carried on along side. There was always going to be a facelift version with the engineering updates even before the press panned the phase 1. Think of the phase 1 as a work in progress and the phase 2 as the finished article. Also bear in mind the press reviews of the phase 1 were of the early pre prod cars. The run out production phase 1s have updated rear subframes with handling improvement.

Such a cool car we never saw in the States.

When TWR had their short lived design and engineering centre in Worthing, we machined the original full size styling model used by Renault to sign off the styling. Pulled an all nighter to make sure the model was ready for Renault the following morning.

I love Renaultsport cars to bits, it’s just sad the manufacturers parts supply is so shocking, they aren’t even that old in the great scheme of things. I had an R26 and even some parts for them are NLA, poor show Renault.

As a young gun I had a R5 Gordini, loved that car and had the great fortune to have a R5 Turbo mid engine, that was a beast and a stunning looking vehicle, just like this Clio V6.

No room inside, very high Gas consum but i Love my Clio V6 🥰

Years ago (more than I'm willing to admit), I drove one of these on a track day. This was the most fun to drive. I can't remember them all but I drove a Caterham, an F2 car, Z350 and an Evo 7.

Please review a Safrane Biturbo. Another crazy Renault. Same base engine as the Alpine A610. It had 4wd and electronically adjustable dampers. The Biturbo engines were built by Hartge, and the car itself was built by Irmscher in Remshalden near Stuttgart. Specific body parts, interior trim and the brakes were Irmscher.

Clio V6 is cool af though. I just wish it had even wider "hips" like the 5 Turbo, from the rear the 5 Turbo looks like a van, when you drive past it it looks like a hatchback. its crazy. and mhhh, I love em wide hips on cars.

It wasn't bad it was incredibly good on track. But it was a handful and hard to recover sometimes impossible when getting it wrong. It took talent, I've got a phase 1 and phase 2. They aren't for the average driver.

Maybe the gearbox giving up was a designed thing in the Phase 2 to make it safer xD
DAS - Death Avoidance System kicked in
see, you didn´t die x>

Jack the incurable optimist returns: "I've just broken Luke's car, but I hope to borrow it again to do a comparison test.....".  Never change, Jack, never change! 😁

That was bad luck with the clutch, Sod’s law it would be when your reviewing it 🤦‍♂️ I have a 172 Cup and it’s shocking how heavy the v6 became in comparison

That gen of standard clio is a great bargain though