The Renaultsport Clio RS16 Was The Best Hot Hatch Never Made

Renaultsport is dead, with Alpine taking over the reins of hotting up Renault’s cars. It has the standalone A110 for now, but the first of its new-found role will see the arrival of the A290 — a performance version of the Renault 5 – in the coming months with more to follow. Had a business decision fallen one way, things could have been very different.

Back in 2016, you had a choice of two Renaultsports. You could go for the Clio Trophy, which admittedly was a little bit of a disappointment particularly as it was only available with a dual-clutch auto rather than any form of manual. Or, if you fancied stumping up the cash, there was the Megane RS – which was rather quite good, but very much in its final days.

In fairness to the subbrand’s engineers, it would always be a struggle to replicate the heyday of Renaultsport’s low-weight, naturally-aspirated rascals with an increased focus on safety, tech and reducing emissions via turbocharging.

Renault Clio RS16, rear 3/4

To bring some excitement back, Renaultsport hatched a simple plan – merge both of its current cars into one. The result was the Clio RS16.

Named after that year’s Renault F1 car, the Clio RS16 was a beefed-up version of the supermini hiding the organs of the Megane 275 Trophy R under its skin. That meant 271bhp from a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot, still sent to the front wheels and even better, through a six-speed manual.

Changes were extensive beyond the powertrain, too. Renaultsport threw a limited-slip differential at it, 19-inch wheels and 360mm brakes from the Trophy R, front suspension from the previous-gen Clio RS and the rear axle lifted from a Clio R3T rally car. Oh, and an Akrapovic exhaust system strapped to it for ultimate fartiness.

Renault Clio RS16, side

This wasn’t a sleeper build either, far from it. The RS16 was 60mm wider than the regular Clio RS, a fact evident by its chunky wheel arches, and was adorned with a wing seen on the Clio Cup race cars.

Although a concept, there was a serious plan to put the Clio RS16 into production. Renault even let a few magazines have a go with the bonkers liquid yellow prototype, and things sounded very promising. Evo magazine described it as “playful, fast and brilliantly rewarding”, while Autocar labelled it “a total dynamic hoot”.

So, why did it never come to fruition? Well, we didn’t mention Alpine just as a passing comment. At the time Renaultsport was developing the RS16, there was also a team working on a sports car that would become the reborn Alpine A110.

Renault Clio RS16, front

Renault’s accountants, and the limited capabilities of its Dieppe factory, dictated only one of the two could be built. As the story goes, the A110 made the cut and the RS16 was shelved.

We’re very, very glad the Alpine made it to reality but it does leave us wondering how things could look today had the sword fallen in favour of the Clio.