BORN TO BE WILD
IT’S NOW 22 YEARS SINCE THE RENAULT Sport Clio V6 street car entered production. Two decades in which nothing has come close to matching its audacity. Created in the spirit of its illustrious rallying ancestor the Renault 5 Turbo, the Clio was created not for the purebred purpose of competition, but as a halo project to draw attention to the then all-new Clio range.
A lesser effort would have been dismissed as a cynical marketing exercise, but the exuberance and style of Renault Sport’s execution ensured we were hooked from the moment it was announced. Ever the outlier, Renault’s bonsai supercar remains a source of joy and fascination, its notoriety made spicier by a reputation for rather dicey handling. Few cars carry such a cloak of myths and legends.
One man who knows the inside story is Steve Marvin. Currently R&D director for French auto industry body PFA, Marvin is a former director of Renault Sport. He was also pivotal in the development of both the Phase 1 and Phase 2 Clio V6 while working at British engineering firm TWR, to whom Renault entrusted the project.
Chatting via Zoom from his home in France, it’s clear that his enthusiasm for the Clio V6 remains undimmed. The glint in his eye is emblematic of a project that typified Renault’s maverick attitude towards making fast, fun cars. For Marvin it assumed greater significance, for the V6 would play
