2001 Renault Clio Sport from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

The car is running as smoothly as the first day I purchased it.

This is a car that considering it's rather small dimensions can show other manufacturers how to get the right balance of comfort, class and performance.

I am impressed with it's overall fit and finish and enjoy the perfect detailing the brushed alloy dash, pedals and gear knob and the snug velor seats provied for the keen driver.

Perhaps my expectations of the overall performance of the Clio was to high, because to me a small two door hatch with a rather large two litre engine sounds like a match made in heaven. On reflection, and after more time behind the wheel you do understand why the car offers class leading performance.

But my previous Lancer 1.8 GSR turbo, was although less refined, offered more space and a lot more accessible power.

The Clio Sport is great, but personally I feel it falls short behind the Japanese N/A engines such as the Vtec and Mivec motors.

How can you feel it falls short of the VTEC and MIVEC engines? I owned a Clio 172, it NEVER lost a race to ANY Japanese 4-cyl I took on. Any Type R Honda, S2000, various 200SX's & WRX's.

A stock Sport Clio 172 will take out a pre-MY03 WRX stock on stock. Any stock 200SX. The Japanese 4-cyls are garbage. They have no guts until insane rpm and then its all over straight away. The Clio's got 85% of its 200Nm from 2500rpm and never lets up to the 7250 cutout.

How can you say that? What you are saying is the complete opposite of what actually is. Turbo cars, especially Japanese 2.0 4 cylinder turbo cars like EVO's and Scoobies have much more low down torque, it's the cars like the 172 and vtecs which have to be revved to high heaven to get anything out of them.

And " Japanese 4 cylinder turbos are garbage". When you have a 2.0 172 N/A that can produce 400 bhp from the factory, then you can say turbos are garbage.

I didn't say All Japanese turbo 4's are rubbish. I said all Japanese **NON** turbo 4's are rubbish. Like Honda's N/A, no torque below 6000rpm, VTEC engines. Or Toyota's no torque below 7000rpm 2ZZ-GE.

By the way, no Japanese 4-cylinder engine has ever produced 400bhp from the factory, turbo or N/A. The most powerful 4-cyl they've made is in the current STi, at 296bhp. If you're referring to the EVO FQ400 that is NOT a factory Japanese car. It is modified by a dealer network in the UK - it starts out with 276bhp. And that thing is ultra slow if caught out of boost, it takes the no power to high revs thing to a new level. Watch the Top Gear test where from 30mph in 5th it loses to a 1.6L Fiat Estate thing. The best bit about it is that its not factory stock Mitsubishi, it's a UK dealer special... so your argument is null and void.