The Gordini name will only grace extreme editions of future Renaultsport-engineered offerings, according to Renault bosses.
In the past few years Gordini, a Renault-owned French sports car brand, has been attached to special editions of the Renault Clio and Twingo that feature cosmetic tweaks only.
Renault’s chief operating officer, Carlos Tavares, has now laid down guidelines on how the Gordini name should be applied in the future.
Gordini cars will sit above Renaultsport products in terms of performance and be attached to track-orientated ‘halo’ models that reinforce Renault’s sporting image.
“We have told Renaultsport that the Gordini name can be used on track or rally versions of RS cars, but it isn’t mandatory,” said Tavares. “What is forbidden is that we use Gordini on anything other than extreme versions.”
Tavares said Gordini variants would feature enhancements such as “more power, lower ride height, bigger brakes and chassis lightening”, and that such cars wouldn’t necessarily be road legal.
He expects Gordini cars to help build Renault’s brand rather than generate huge sales. “The track and rally variations can be profitable and should be, but that’s not the main goal,” he said. “It is more about brand building.”
Renault’s smaller cars, such as the Mégane and Clio, lend themselves well to performance tuning, but Tavares said he wouldn’t rule out a hot Laguna, provided the business case was convincing.
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RenaultSport Laguna?
'Tavares said he wouldn’t rule out a hot Laguna, provided the business case was convincing.'
That would be a bold move as most other mainstream manufacturers have stopped making hot D-segment cars (Ford, Honda, Mazda, Peugeot, VW), or abandoned making/importing them altogether (Fiat, Nissan, Citroen, Renault). Only the Vauxhall Insignia VXR and, arguably, the Skoda Octavia vRS seem to be left now. The premium brands have swallowed up this niche market and you can't imagine it will ever return. Pity because there were some good cars built over the years (Mondeo ST220, Accord Type-R, Mazda 6 MPS etc).
Personally, I always thought the facelifted Laguna was a handsome car and it would have been great to see it get a RenaultSport Megane drivetrain and sub-£25k pricetag. I think it would have sold well off the back of good Megane sales. An Octavia vRS rival if you like.
Not before time.
This is how things should've been when they reintroduced Gordini a few years ago. Instead they ended up making the tackiest special editions known to man. Let's hope Renault turn this around, a Gordini Clio sounds great.
A purist would want a paddle
A purist would want a paddle shift, as that is the optimal way of controlling the car to get best performance.
supertax wrote: A purist
The 'optimum way' of me affording a seven-bedroom house is to move up north. That ain't happening either.
Ray60 wrote: supertax
Which means you are not a purist when it comes to cheap house buying.