Story from Pistonheads

Joe 90

I do love these, I remember there was a little story about VW misinterpreting Renault's intention with it.

Story goes that Renault were developing a "3l Clio", VW assumed this was 3l of fuel per 100km and so made the Lupo 3l economy car as a response...

How true it was I don't know but I am glad Renault did a proper job with this, they look amazing on the road.

Renault were developing this:

Kenny Logins

Saw one in North Cork recently, have to admit, it did look and sound great.

anthony4335

You do have to give it to Renault, that size of engine in that size of car is crasy, If I remember correctly it could not fit into the engine bay so they put it in the where the back seats were. I would love to give it a go, supposed to be impossible to drive.

Joe 90

anthony4335 wrote: »

You do have to give it to Renault, that size of engine in that size of car is crasy, If I remember correctly it could not fit into the engine bay so they put it in the where the back seats were. I would love to give it a go, supposed to be impossible to drive.

Not impossible by any means, just different from the 99% FWD cars that people are used to these days. It is in fact the best way to build a performance car. Ask Ferrari, Lamborghine, Lotus etc.

Not Renault's first mid engine small saloon. The original Renault Turbo was a Renault 5 shell with a mid mounted 1.3 liter turbocharged engine. It was a pretty useful rally car. I rememeber seeing a rodgoing version of one in Dublin in the early 80s.

Kenny Logins

anthony4335 wrote: »

You do have to give it to Renault, that size of engine in that size of car is crasy, If I remember correctly it could not fit into the engine bay so they put it in the where the back seats were. I would love to give it a go, supposed to be impossible to drive.

I'm sure that wasn't the only reason for the mid-engine setup.

hi5

Rover did it with the Metro and Ford also did it with the Festiva back in the day.
Both 3 litres too.

darragh o meara

I've driven a Clio V6 and very nearly bought one a few years back. Excellent car and a sound that would give you a serious smile it was a surprisingly well put together car.

I've heard the VW story before but I'm not sure it's true, wouldn't be surprised though, there's always a one upmanship between the European manufacturers.

Supergurrier

The french make some mental Hot hatches, the current Megane RS is more than a match for the more powerful MK2 Focus RS tbh even though it should be in ST territory. The new stripped down version of the fast clio is also fairly mental

bijapos

Joe 90 wrote: »

I do love these, I remember there was a little story about VW misinterpreting Renault's intention with it.

Story goes that Renault were developing a "3l Clio", VW assumed this was 3l of fuel per 100km and so made the Lupo 3l economy car as a response...

How true it was I don't know but I am glad Renault did a proper job with this, they look amazing on the road.

Renault were developing this:

Story is rubbish, probably some spin made up by Renault at the launch of the Clio, to get a laugh out of the journalists, it's a good story all the same.

Truth is Ferdinand Piech was a bit obsessive about fuel consumption and realised that it had to come down. This is why he went for a 3l/100km car, 3l was always a magical figure, a bit like 100 MPG or 200 MPH. So he got VW engineers to bbuild a 3l Lupo, aim for a 5l Golf sized car and they also had the experimental 1l car as well.

Rumor was it that they lost money on every 3l Lupo built but it also served as a test bed for stuff that are in VW cars today. What is little known about the 3l is that in an attempt to save weight VW used plastic and magnesium on the rear hatch along with thin glass, this led to bad handling on it's low resistance tyres so they were forced to add lead weights to the back of the car for the first year to improve handling. They resolved this by putting the battery in the boot and eventually replacing the rear hatch with a standard one.

Piech wasn't all bad, he also had the Veyron built as a mark of what VW engineers could achieve.

Matt Simis

Joe 90 wrote: »

Not impossible by any means, just different from the 99% FWD cars that people are used to these days.

Not even close to 99% of cars on the road are FWD. Unless you mean that FWD cars are 99% FWD (and 1% slidely understeer?). :pac:

BMW will happily sell you a 130i or 135i as 3.0litre RWD sports hatches any time you want. Engine is where is should be too!

Kenny Logins

Matt Simis wrote: »

Not even close to 99% of cars on the road are FWD. Unless you mean that FWD cars are 99% FWD (and 1% slidely understeer?). :pac:

BMW will happily sell you a 130i or 135i as 3.0litre RWD sports hatches any time you want. Engine is where is should be too!

Yep, in my time driving I've only ever owned one FWD car. Engines at either end, but never in the middle.

vectra

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Saw one in North Cork recently, have to admit, it did look and sound great.

If it was a silver one, the owner lives near enough to me.
Nice car.

Kenny Logins

vectra wrote: »

If it was a silver one, the owner lives near enough to me.
Nice car.

Yep, that's the one.