Facelifted 2017 Renaultsport Clio R.S. revealed

Renault has taken the wraps off the facelifted 2017 Clio R.S. If you think it looks rather familiar, that’s because it shares a few styling traits with the Clio R.S. 16 concept, revealed at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix.

The most obvious being the LED daytime running lights on the front bumper, which are arranged in Renaultsport’s motif called the ‘R.S. Vision’. There are also subtle changes to the hothatch’s headlights, LED taillights, front and rear bumpers, side skirts, roof-mounted spoiler and rear diffuser.

The 2017 Renaultsport Clio R.S. will be offered in three variants – Sport, Cup and Trophy, each with its own chassis setup and comes with either 17- or 18-inch wheels.

The entry-level Sport can be described as “mild”, while the Cup is a little hotter. The Trophy is the full fat version with a beefed up chassis, lowered ride height – 20mm at the front and 10mm at the rear – and a quicker steering rack.

All three flavours are powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine that comes in two states of tune – 147kW and 162kW – with the latter exclusively for the Trophy variant. The Trophy also comes with a sonorous Akrapovic exhaust system. Like before, all models are paired with a 6-speed EDC dual-clutch transmission.

Performance wise, the Clio R.S. Trophy is said to take just 6.6 seconds to hit 100km/h from a standstill, thanks to a launch control system. It is claimed to cover 400m from rest in just 14.5 seconds, while top speed is rated at 235km/h.

Also carried over the Renault’s R.S. Drive system, which comes with a choice of three driving modes – Normal, Sport and Race.

Expect the 2017 Renaultsport Clio R.S. to launch in Australia towards the end of the year or early 2017.