Renault Sport Clio 200 Turbo

This misguided departure from the French brand's hot hatch heritage saw the Clio fall from grace

- ADAM TOWLER

THE TROUBLE WAS, SAID MY INTERVIEWEE, "T with a charismatically thick French accent and more than a wry smile, 'we spent all the money on the old car...

We weren't meant to be chatting about hot Clios, but our man knew about them better than most - I'd just better not drop him in it here - and the conversation had strayed onto one of the most controversial cars ever to wear the now-defunct Renault Sport badge: the final, turbocharged Clio RS of 2013.

I had always wondered what those on the inside really thought of the 200 Turbo. At the time, Renault said the model was aimed at broadening the market appeal of the firm's hot hatches, which seemed a dangerous sentiment.

Broadening appeal smacks of trying to have one's cake and eat it, especially so in this case, as the previous Clio RS was a bona fide evo icon, a car whose gunslinger-esque shadow still looms large over the hot hatch market to this day.