2001 RENAULT CLIO SPORT 3.0L V6
The Sportiest of Compacts
There is an old saying “ you always want what you can’t have”. How true this is.
When asking automotive enthusiasts, which car they are lusting for, one car is always in the very top portion of the list, if not the
#1. And the car is not available in the US. It is a car that falls in the classification known as Sport Compacts and as far as we are
concerned, it is “The Sportiest of Compacts”. The Renault Clio V6.
It is a testosterone loaded little road rocket with go-kart like handling. The car is hand assembled in Sweden by none other than
TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing). There are less than 1600 of these hand-built wet-dream-on-wheels in the world and the only
reason the car even exists is because Renault needed to homologate it to race it. You heard correctly - race it. The Clio V6 is
essentially a slightly de-tuned version of the same car raced in the Clio Cup. And what is the Clio Cup you ask, only one of the
most exiting racing series in Europe.
Consider the Clio V6 statistics. The car is not much bigger than a Civic
hatchback, but it has a 250 horsepower (230 hp DIN)
and a 3.0-liter V6 engine where normally the rear seat and luggage space would be. What a great concept. If the engine bay is
too small, put the engine in the rear seat. Who needs passengers anyway? The race-bread suspension is tight and the exterior
styling evokes responses from onlookers we cannot print here.
So when Nology chose the Clio V6 as their next project vehicle, they were faced with a dilemma. How do you improve a perfect
car? And the answer is: by using the best aftermarket parts from the best manufacturers in the world.
Nology started by putting on the actual wheels that are used on the Clio Cup cars. 17 “ O.Z.s’, 7x17 in the front and 8.5x17 in
the rear. Of course the tires had to be the new Yokohama AVS ES100. In the front they are 215/45's and in the rear they are
245/40's. These two modifications alone improved the handling tremendously. Next was the suspension, which was much more
difficult than expected. The stock handling is already impeccable and the Yokohama tires and O.Z. wheels made further
improvement almost impossible. It took the knowledge of the engineers over at Eibach with their treasure chest of
motorsport
parts, to take the handling to a level that even surpasses racecar roadability. Several sets of special Eibach springs were needed
to finally get it right. The result? We like it, we really like it.
What did we do to upgrade the brake system? Absolutely nothing! The car already has 13 “ ventilated monster discs on the front
with hefty four-piston calipers that would smash your face against the windshield if it weren’t for the four-point racing harness
from Momo. Also from Momo are the racing seats, the steering wheel, pedals, e-brake handle, and anti-skid boards.
And just in case we get bored with the tremendous performance and handling, 3T Motorsports installed as much audio / video
equipment as possible. Starting with an Alpine in-dash monitor with DVD player, the audio signals travel through Scosche wiring
to a Massive Audio equalizer and 6-channel amplifier, finally reaching 3 sets of Momo components and a matching Momo
subwoofer built by Polk Audio. And believe me, if the screaming of the engine, or the G’s when accelerating, or the
light-headiness when cornering don’t entertain you, the stereo will. As a matter of fact, you can FEEL it.
Next came the engine. How much power can the car handle? What mod’s would not hurt reliability and drivability? The choice
was easy: A two-stage 100 hp kit from Nitrous Express. We knew the engine could handle it. It is built to the highest standards.
The engine block with all it’s webbing looks like an IRL engine and going the nitrous round would not hurt drivability, because
the engine essentially stays stock. However, in order to assure ignition when that hundred-shot of nitrous hits the combustion
chambers, we had to improve the ignition system. There is nothing worse than a weak ignition and loads of nitrous. We installed
Nology PowerCore coil amplifiers and Silverstone spark plugs, as well as a Nology PowerBand electronic engine management
controller, which was only used to control the ignition timing. Without the PowerBand controller, detonation-caused meltdown
would be assured. It looks like the laughing gas really works. Everyone who drove the car had a big smile on their face and no
wonder, now, when you push that little button and activate the Nitrous Express Shark SX2 Nozzle, hold on, because now the car
has 350 horsepower. Did anybody say slingshot? But pleeeeease make sure you keep your hand on the billet shift knob of the
B&M short shifter while accelerating through the six-speed tranny so you don’t miss a shift, or the engine will bounce off the rev
limiter while you laugh yourself silly.
The Nology ignition upgrades also improved off-nitrous performance, as did the sport exhaust from Renault, which also added to
the audible pleasure even before the engine reaches it’s 7100 rpm redline. Not to mention the exhaust tips, which are so
handsome, in a strictly mechanical design kind-of-way, of course.
Except for some cool graphics from Digital Imagery featuring the logo from Dragon Optical, which is the company who
supplied all those cool shades the Nology guys are wearing, the exterior was unchanged. Why mess with
perfection.
Next the Nology Clio V6 will go to the racetrack, skid pad and the dyno. Here is what we expect to see: 0-60 should be under 5
seconds and the car ought to rip through the 1/4 mile in the 11-second range at 120 to 130 mph. Estimated top speed is 160 mph.
On the skid pad we hope to get above 1 g and in the slalom, even a Porsche GT 2 should have a hard time keeping up. Engine
power is something like 250 hp stock, 300 hp 1st stage squeeze and 350 hp 2nd stage squeeze.
And there you have it. The Sportiest of Compacts, not coming to America soon. Keep wishing though.
RENAULT CLIO V-6 SPECIFICATIONS
ENGINE
Displacement: 2946 cc
Bore x Stroke: 87.0 x 82.6 mm
Cylinders: 6
Valves:
24
Injection:Bosch ME 7.4 sequential injection
Compression Ratio:11.4:1
Maximum power (Stock): 250 bhp (230 DIN) at 6000 rpm
Maximum torque (Stock): 221 lbs/ft (30.6 mkg DIN) at 3750 rpm
Maximum power (Modified)
Nitrous Oxide – Stage 1: 300 bhp
Nitrous Oxide – Stage 2: 350 bhp
VEHICLE WEIGHT:1335 kgs
NUMBER OF FORWARD GEARS:6
BRAKING SYSTEM
Servo-assisted, diagonally split double circuit system
ABS with EBD (electronic brake distribution)
Ventilated disks
Front: 330mm with 4-piston calipers
Rear: 300mm with 2-piston calipers
STEERING
Power assisted rack and pinion.
2.75 turns lock to lock
PERFORMANCE (Stock)
0-62 mph: 6.4 seconds
Top Speed: 147 mph
PERFORMANCE (Modified)
0-62: 4.9 seconds
1/4 mile: 11.4 sec. at 122 mph
Top speed: 160 mph (Estimated)
Skid pad: 1.1 g’s
MODIFICATIONS
ENGINE UPGRADES
Ignition Upgrade – NOLOGY
SX2 Dual Stage Nitrous Oxide Kit– NITROUS EXPRESS
B&M - Billet Short Shifter
SUSPENSION
EIBACH - Pro-Kit Lowering Springs
WHEELS
O.Z. WHEELS -SUPERTURISMO
FRONT 17x7 / REAR 17x8.5
TIRES
YOKOHAMA - AVS ES100
FRONT 215/45ZR17 / REAR 245/40ZR17
EXTERIOR UPGRADES
MOMO - Carbon-fiber Exhaust Tips
DIGITAL IMAGERY - Vinyl Graphics
INTERIOR UPGRADES
MOMO - STREET RACER GT Adjustable Racing Seats, Street-legal Harnesses, TREK Steering Wheel,
SUPERTURISMO Racing Pedals, PIT STOP E-brake Handle, Anti-skid Racing Plates
AUDIO UPGRADES
3T MOTORSPORTS - Audio System Builder / Installer
POLK AUDIO - 3 pairs of MOMO MM6 6.5” Components and
MOMO MM10 10” Subwoofer
ALPINE - CVA-1003 In-dash 6.5” Motorized Monitor,DVA-5205 In-dash DVD Player
MASSIVE AUDIO - RS 650 6-Channel Amplifier, EQ-2X Equalizer
SCOSCHE - Audio Wiring Products
3T Motorsports
1525 Mesa Verde Drive East,Suite 211
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 715-5976
www.3tmotorsports.com
Alpine Electronics of America, Inc.
19145 Gramercy Place
Torrance, CA 90501
310) 326-8000
www.alpine-usa.com
B&M Racing & Performance Products
9142 Independence Avenue
Chatsworth, CA 91311
(818) 882-6422
www.bmracing.com
Digital Imagery
18005 Merrill Avenue
Fontana, CA 92335
(909) 355-2736
www.diclothing.com
Dragon Optical
5803 Newton Drive, Suite C
Carlsbad, CA 92008
888 DRAGON 8
www.dragonoptical.com
Eibach
17817 Gillette Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614
(949) 752-6700
www.eibach.com
Massive Audio, Inc.
P.O. BOX 252004
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(213) 623-1696
www.massiveaudio.com
Momo
25471 Arctic Ocean Dr.
Lake Forest, CA 92630
(949) 380-7556
www.momo.it
Nitrous Express, Inc.
4923 Lake Park Drive
Wichita Falls, TX 76302
(888) 463-2781
www.nitrousexpress.com
O. Z. America, Inc.
7500 NW 25th Street
Unit A4
Miami, FL 33122
(305) 471-0042
www.ozwheels.com
Polk Audio
5601 Metro Drive
Baltimore, MD 21215
(410) 358-3600
www.polkaudio.com
Scosche Industries, Inc.
1550 Pacific Avenue
Oxnard, CA 93033
(800) 363-4490
www.scosche.com
Yokohama Tire, Corp.
601 S. Acacia Avenue
Fullerton, CA 92831
(800) 722-9888
www.yokohamatire.com
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