600-mile Renaultsport Clio 200 Cup | Spotted
Sad there aren't new fast Clios anymore? Here's the next best thing
The Alpine A290 can’t come soon enough. A world without French hot hatches is a worse one, let’s be clear. And that’s not exaggeration, either, with Peugeot offering nothing more potent than a GT badge, Citroen doing who knows what and Renault abandoning combustion pocket rockets ahead of the Alpine electric revolution. Leaving the 145hp E-Tech Esprit Alpine about as sporty as small Renaults currently get. Even in the bad old days of C4 VTSes and 207 GTIs, at least they were trying a bit. Now look.
So there’s pressure on the A290 - but there’s potential as well. Because truly great cars come out of Dieppe, whether they be front-drive hot hatches or mid-engined sports cars. They nail it pretty much every single time. And perhaps no Renaultsport bullseye was quite so emphatic as the Clio 200; highly rated when new, a legend in its own lifetime and adored 15 years after launch, it was everything we’d come to love about French hot hatches. Fast, fun, a perfect balance of sophistication and rawness - and cheap. So people who loved driving, loved 200 Clios.
Which you knew already, of course, and may well have personal experience to draw upon given the cheap and cheerful nature of the last 2.0-litre Clio. You may well also have noticed that the best 200s have been appreciating of late, its status as the last naturally aspirated, manual Renaultsport Clio - and a belter at that - attracting the interest of collectors. Values have not risen to crazy levels yet, but they’ve certainly long passed their lowest ebb.
Getting a good one can be tricky, too. As one of the defining driver’s cars of recent times, the Clio 200 became a box to tick for many, and mean a good few are for sale with plenty of previous owners given their age. (Or they find that they’re just a bit too hardcore). Lots of keepers isn’t the end of the world, but it’s not always the best news for keeping a thorough history as the cars (and the problems) keep being moved along. Having personally viewed a 200 with more owners than service stamps, it can be unsettling. Especially as these things are so brilliant to drive; you know they’ll have been thrashed, because there’s not much point in a Renaultsport otherwise, so lots of paperwork with lots of miles feels more essential than usual.
No need to worry about this Clio 200 Cup - a bare bones Cup, too, without air con or keyless start - over the past decade and half and pair of owners, because it’s covered 600 miles. Not 600 miles a year, or 600 plus running in, but 600 total since 2010. It’s covered four miles since a cambelt change in 2021. It’s a museum-grade modern classic, the kind of which is never, ever seen. The 200 was too affordable, too unputdownably superb to drive, that they all got driven. All bar this one.
It’ll surely go on to reside in another collection, alongside a Williams, a Trophy, probably a two-seat Megane of some description - cars of that ilk. The cars Renault did better than anyone else. It’s surely too nice to use in anger, to barrel into bends and rev out every single gear to 8,000rpm, even in bare-bones Cup spec. Probably a bit too valuable for it as well, the asking price of £34,995 more than double what it would have cost in 2010. Told you they were going up. And, appropriately enough, not far off what an A290 is likely to cost, too. Fingers firmly crossed it’s another icon.
SPECIFICATION | RENAULTSPORT CLIO 200 CUP
Engine: 1,998cc, four-cyl
Transmission: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 200@7,100rpm
Torque (lb ft): 159@5,400rpm
MPG: 34.4
CO2: 195g/km
Recorded mileage: 600
Year registered: 2010
Price new: £15,750 (2009, Cup)
Yours for: £34,995
k is paying that.
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