A clever advertising campaign, that’s all it was. Launched in 2002, it featured French footballer Thierry Henry proclaiming that the Renault Clio had ‘va va voom’. It encapsulated something subjective, a feeling. It was saying while other cars may have more space, be safer, quicker, more economical, a Clio had a charm that you couldn’t put your finger on.
Little did Renault know, but these were halcyon times for the brand. The subsequent Clio models didn’t quite capture the imagination in the same way, and now the Boulogne-Billancourt-based manufacturer has a range full of nondescript SUVs like the Kadjar. To me, there’s no surprise that market share – in the UK at least – sits at 2.56 per cent, behind rivals such as Seat, Skoda, Nissan and Peugeot. They started chasing the head, not the heart.
But this week’s GT Sport Daily Races enable you to relive a time when driving a Renault was almost cool. It’s time to soak up a certain je ne sais quoi.
The Renault Sport Clio V6 24V ’00 makes another return to the Daily Race Fold. We used this recently, but that was around Monza and this time we’re at a different F1 venue for Race A – the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix Layout.
Far from our favourite circuits, it turns out all you need to have a fun race around here is a rear-mid-engine French hatchback from the early 00s. Expect lots of panel rubbing across three laps on Sports Hard tyres.
As is often the case these days, Race B features any Gr.4 car that you have in your garage. To keep on the Renault theme, you have a choice of two. The front-engine and front-wheel-drive Mégane or the mid-engine rear-wheel-drive Mégane Trophy ’11. One is quick in a straight line, one is quick around the corners, choose your poison.
Discussion