{"id":2434,"date":"2023-07-12T08:39:37","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T08:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/cult-classics\/?p=2434"},"modified":"2024-10-21T22:07:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T21:07:16","slug":"renault-clio-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk/cult-classics\/renault-clio-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Renault Clio Williams: the best hot hatch of the 90s?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The Renault Clio Williams was arguably the defining hot hatch of the 1990s, usurping the champion Peugeot 205 GTi from its lofty perch.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While it bathed in the reflected glory of the then-dominant Williams F1 team, its name was merely inspired marketing fluff – it was Renault Sport who turned the humble Clio into something special.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We look back at Renault\u2019s pocket rocket.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Take the already excellent Clio 16V,<\/strong> give it to Renault Sport, slap a Williams F1 badge on it, and you\u2019ve got the perfect ingredients for arguably the best hot hatch of the \u201890s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Clio was already a roaring success on these shores when the Williams was conceived as a homologation special in 1993 to allow Renault to go rallying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Launched here in 1991, when it was named European Car of the Year, the Clio was the first Renault to regularly sit in the top 10 sellers in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its success was fuelled by Papa and Nicole, the fictional father and daughter who starred in the most popular car adverts ever aired in Britain, according to Channel 4 and ITV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first attempt to give the little car some extra oomph was the 1.8-litre, 8-valve RSi, producing a healthy 110bhp, followed by the much more powerful, fuel-injected 16V, which pumped out 137bhp and propelled the Clio to 130mph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was marked out by widened front wings and rear arches, colour-coded bumpers, a bonnet vent, and beefed up suspension and brakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That would have been the sporting high-point of the first generation Clio, but then came the Williams\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1992, the Renault-powered Williams F1 team was virtually unstoppable, with Nigel Mansell winning the opening five races and going on to become the first driver to win nine races in a season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He had the title wrapped up with five races to spare, team-mate Riccardo Patrese often following him home and taking second in the overall standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Williams-Renault partnership would go on to win five constructors championships in six years, so what better way of promoting your new rally car for the road than naming it in celebration of this phenomenal success?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, Frank and his F1 team played no part in building the hot hatch that would bear his name, but Renault Sport had its own distinguished history, and there was nothing second rate about the job they performed on the Clio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The French manufacturer\u2019s motorsport division had, after all, been responsible for homologating the brutal, mid-engined R5 Turbo of the wild Group 4 rally days of the early \u201880s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Motor Sport<\/em> magazine, when reviewing the Clio Williams in July 1993, questioned whether \u201cwe could simply dismiss the whole thing as a cynical marketing ploy\u201d – but then they drove it, and found that it was the real deal after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Renault Sport chose the Clio 16V as a base car to work on, boring out the twincam 1.8-litre F7P engine to create the 2-litre F7R unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\u2019s not all they did – a longer stroke, higher lift camshafts, bigger inlet valves, a stronger crankshaft, and polished inlet manifolds joined a Fenix 3A multi-point fuel injection system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A four-to-one exhaust manifold, a wet sump with revised baffles to prevent oil surges, and tri-electrode spark plugs completed the package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It all added up to 148bhp at 6,100rpm and 129lb ft of torque at 4,500 revs, though 85 per cent of this was available at just 2,500 revs, making the Williams highly responsive to small nudges on the throttle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Acceleration to 60mph was officially 7.8 seconds, though some road testers achieved better scores, with top speed up to 134mph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To cope with all this, Renault used the stronger, more positive, close-ratio JC5 gearbox, while also stiffening the suspension, using a wider front track with wishbones similar to those used on the Renault 19 16V, and utilising the reinforced cross member used on the Clio Cup racing cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Clio would come in metallic sports blue with gold Speedline alloy wheels, shod with Michelin 185\/55R Pilot HX tyres, to mirror the blue and yellow of the F1 team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t
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Clio Williams – what\u2019s in a name?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Renault Clio Williams under the skin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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