Wednesday, March 7, 2012

James May's absolutely useless! But the Renaultsport Clio III Phase II isn't!

Autocar, the magazine that fired James May in the past, once said that by pound for pound, the Renaultsport Clio (known in Japan as the Renaultsport Lutecia) is the most exciting car on sale. As I'm sure, I saw this one on a Top Gear episode where the presenters and their hot hatchbacks are placed to the test from the labyrinth of Lucca, Italy, to the Monaco Cote D'Azur. On the Monaco part, it was been proven that Jeremy Clarkson and his Citroen DS3 Racing is 5 seconds faster than the idiots Richard Hammond with his Fiat 500C Abarth Esseesse and James May in his Renault Clio III Renaultsport 200 Cup. That's just the beginning.

With those three hot hatchbacks featured on Clarkson's DVD titled "Clarkson: Powered Up", Jeremy Clarkson enlisted Lotus F1 driver, Karun Chandhok, to find out which of these three hot hatchbacks is the fastest at some part of the Paul Ricard Test Circuit. As proven, The Fiat 500C Abarth Esseesse was the slowest of the three and the fastest of the three? Nope, it's not the Citroen DS3 Racing. It's James May's Renaultsport Clio. Despite that this is the only non-turbo hot hatch of the three, this is the fastest of the three. James May's absolutely useless!

Oh look! James May's here in his driving instructor's car!

So, this is the fastest of the three. As a response from many Forza Faithfuls who are part-time Top Gear fans, the Renaultsport Clio III Phase II was featured on Forza Motorsport 4 via the March Pirelli Pack, now on sale. Although, it is difficult to say that how did that dopey old idiot was doing because this even feels fast. The little Abarth 500 is all about style and the Citroen DS3 is like a spongecake. Very soft and very comfortable but for the Renaultsport Clio 200? This does none of these things...

The Renaultsport Clio's too noisy at 70MPH in 4th Gear!

This car is better than the pre-facelifted model I have on the game, the 2007 Renault Clio 197. Not only that, it's lighter as well because while the 2007 Renault Clio 197 weighs 2,778lbs, the 2010 Renault Clio RS weighs about 2,654lbs. From the looks of it, it has a Formula One style front splitter for enhanced aerodynamics. The 0-60 time is the same, which in fact both the old and the new can do 6.9 seconds, but the Power/Weight ratio is what matters. With the old Clio RS 197 has 158.88BHP/tonne, the Clio RS 200 has 161.34BHP/tonne.

With the Cup chassis, it's stiffer and lighter, providing some nimble agility and lowered height. In reality, a standard Clio Renaultsport 200 Cup has no airconditioning and no navigation. What that moron had on Top Gear has an aircon as a maker option. Heh, that's James May's problem right now...

I bet most of these are optional...

If you watched Clarkson Powered Up DVD, you should realize that the Renaultsport Clio's a bit too noisy while it was cruising on 70MPH in 4th gear. That is bad for the economy, bad for emissions, and bad for the ears. Jeremy Clarkson's ears hate this car!

Although Autocar claims that the Renaultsport Clio is by pound for pound, the most exciting car on sale, it wasn't enough but that's okay though. I am getting a hang on this car. Although it is not turbocharged, this is somewhat nimble, stiffer, quicker, and above all, bonkers to drive. Perhaps this should have been five seconds quicker than Hammond's Abarth and Clarkson's Citroen. Never mind, what matters is that I'm happy to have that Clio. Now what I don't want to do is catching someone who's reading James May's Man Lab Book of Usefulness.

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