Sadly the subject of emissions has reared it's ugly head & one should rejoice at the RS Clio as it could be with present outdated & frankly ridiculous measurement criteria the last swansong of the naturally aspirated high revving engine in mainstream manufacturing. It's already killed off the Civic Type-R/S2000 engine.
The next Clio RS will ge 1.6 turbo with no doubt more power circa 220bhp I'd guess, from a development of the engine found in the Nissan Juke, as it saves costs with Renault owning Nissan.
Anyway I digress, the 500 Abarth has already had a full road test in EVO mag V's Clio, Mini & DS3 Sport & came last. The 500 Abarth was an owner from the Abarth forums car. I would therefore believe given it was outscored by the lesser 150bhp model the 203bhp Racing model would prove to be too high a target to aim for.
I read I think in CAR magazine that the true quality of the RS products shines through once you drive them. The money has been spent on the chassis, the engineering, the purity of the car, to indulge you in the experience. Not on tarting up an interior in an effort to deceive like the 500 dies with it's even compared to my older generation Clio very poor quality interior. The dash and door cards are very brittle plastic, my Clio has fully upholstered dash and door cards, no scratchiness. An example of this is the wheel bearings, the Clio Cup has updated wheel bearings and different hubs from non Cups so that they withstand trackdays, the dampers are not interchangeable because of this, & of course totally different from normal Clios, Abarth 500 runs nothing different from a normal 500, it's all interchangeable this saves costs but means its compromised. It's this integrity you don't see.
As for reliability RS products should be viewed in isolation from the normal stuff, but I know of a Clio Trophy with 174,000miles on it, a car that did 70,000 in it's first 11months of ownership in 2005 & apart from consumables line tyres, brakes etc has had nothing fail, not even the alternator & it's now a pure track day car getting nothing but abuse. With only 500 made & all numbered most are traceable through dedicated owners club site.
Jamie86 on here's Clio 172 has over 100,000miles on it now, had no oil change for 30k which included 100+ laps of Castle Combe & apart from neglect on his part when the auxiliary belt should have been changed 12k earlier snapped taking out cambelt & a tired engine mount which snapped at Cadwell Park on a track day has been very reliable.
Some cars achieve greatness through time, some with motorsport achievement, some by being rule changers, MK2 Golf GTi, 106 Rallye, 306 GTi-6/Rallye, Honda Integra DC2 Type-R, Clio Williams, Clio Trophy, Megane R26R even the EP3 Civic Type-R with it's 6 speed gearbox & 2L 197bhp 8000rpm engine combo being offered at a time when the crap Golf MK4 GTi was still geing sold with it's asthmatic 2L 115bhp 5speed combo moved the game on to such sn extent that suddenly 200bhp was seen as almost a must for a hot match, not an exclusivity reserved for bigger cars.
The present Abarth products havnt done this & as a 7 tenths car is brilliant, but it's not game changing as it falls apart at 8 tenths.
Of course we are all biased, myself included as I have put two of my present cars on that list of greats!
