My Clio Trophy Blog

Take a Cup and paint it in bright Capsicum Red. Next add a few Trophy logos and then purloin the rear spoiler from the wild Clio Renaultsport V6 255 thats sadly now longer with us. Fit a pair of hip hugging black Recaro Sport Trendline bucket seats, guaranteed to drop the seat of your pants 10mm closer to the bitumen and add a super tactile leather steering wheel. Bolt on a set of Renaultsport-branded door sill finishers for a touch of bling and a numbered plaque detailing which of the 500 production run your Trophy is and thats pretty much it when it comes to the aesthetics.

Although Renault have wisely left power output alone, theyve further honed what the Clio 182 Cup always did best, namely demolish corners with gleeful abandon. The suspension is based on the Cup set-up. As a reminder, over the normal Renaultsport 182, this has lower ride height, stiffer springs (20% front, 15% rear), re-rated dampers (+20% front, +10% rear), strengthened front wheel hub carriers and revised steering geometry.

The Trophy suspension is lowered a further 10mm at the front with shorter springs. The dampers are supplied by Sachs Race Engineering and have a unique damping force/velocity curve. Normally only used in competition cars, these dampers cost 10 times more than a conventional road car damper and feature a remote reservoir to accommodate nearly 50% of the oil and gas. This remote reservoir liberates enough space to package a thicker and therefore stiffer damper rod, thus increasing camber compliance.

The increased oil volume brings better thermal stability, to enable the damper to maintain optimal performance at all times. The space liberated allows the hydraulic components and damper valving to work more effectively. Another unusual feature of the damper is that a hydraulic bump stop replaces the usual physical elastometric one. This gives a much more progressive stiffness rate once the bump stop starts to work and thus allows a lower ride height without compromising bump travel.

The objective of the lower ride height is to improve the turn in and reduce understeer. Overall, these chassis modifications give the Trophy much improved damping control at all speeds, improved traction and reduced body movements (roll and pitch). This is particularly noticeable on poor quality roads i.e. typical English B roads.

The wheels are Speedline Turini in anthracite (the same design as those used on the Renaultsport 172 Cup, though with a different offset and colour). These wheels save 1.3kg each and this reduction in the unsprung weight further improves the wheel control and therefore handling.