Studies the world over tell an interesting story when it comes to road safety. You might imagine the constant evolution of our roads is a good thing, a safe thing, the best thing. Wider, bigger, clearer and smoother is better. However, reflectors and chevrons are proven to increase average speeds on our roads, as do sign posted sections warning of sharp bends ahead, as does smooth, new tarmac – fact.

A perfect example is Bainskloof Pass outside Wellington – Thomas Bains’ magnum opus to road building. Blown out of sheer rock-face with tons of dynamite and reputed to have taken the lives of several slaves who built it, no wonder it’s so intimidating to drive.

The majority of road users would never even consider it a viable thoroughfare over the mountains, and how safe is a road so ‘unsafe’ you won’t even drive on it? That’s the very definition of ‘safe’ if you ask me. You can’t crash off Bainskloof if you decided to take the tunnel or better yet stay home and host the business meeting over Skype instead.

It’s recently been upgraded however, which means you might consider using it, and if you do you’ll be going faster on it than ever before. Very fast at the base of it with all the shiny, new crash barriers and cats eyes massaging your ego. And by the time you reach the descent with only the white, ‘Bain’s tombstones’ (as some have called them) separating you from the valley below, I guarantee you would’ve slowed down. Easier is faster, difficult is safe – fact.

The Renault Clio RS Gordini is probably the best automotive equivalent of this. And I’m not saying the mad Renault is fast and easy, and therefore unsafe. No. Quite the opposite in fact. I’m saying that by the same rationale, it is actually the safest car in the world.

The Renault Clio RS is so fast and so connected and so unable to massage your ego – it’s like driving surrounded by ‘Bain’s tombstones’ everywhere you go. With a hard ride that pummels your kidneys even on the smoothest roads, a razor sharp steering input that darts you off the road if you so much as blink an eyelid, and a throttle so eager its driven itself halfway down the road each morning, before you even wake up, the Renault Clio RS is all about producing the most switched on driving experience possible.

The Gordini is only differentiated from a standard Clio RS (with the Cup suspension) by all the white on blue Gordini stickers. Which sully the cars no frills, maximum thrills appeal for me personally, but just like the standard Clio RS, it’s still an absolute screamer.

Pull away in the Clio RS feels like someone shot you down the road from the barrel of a bolt action rifle. The acceleration is immediate and the excitement this car delivers is second to none. The Clio RS makes a staggering 147.5 kW and 215 Nm from its normally aspirated 2.0-litre engine that revs clean up to 8 000 r/min and chugs out a meaty bark in the process. Then you set off in a burst of tyre squeal and you just need to hold on for dear life from there. 0 – 100 km/h comes in less than seven seconds, but the sound and the chaos makes it feel like half that.

The torque takes a while to kick in if you’re driving like a pansy, because maximum only runs rampant between 5 000 and 8 000 r/min. I like this though, because that’s too high for my girlfriend to ever reach. She doesn’t know what I’m going on about when I say the RS is so fast. She likes the torque where it’s easy to find. Say 1 000 r/min. The Clio RS needs full commitment from its driver to get the best of it. Not that that’s difficult because the throttle response is so instant, unsanitised and addictive.

My only misgivings about the Clio RS Gordini are the following: The hard ride and stiff chassis, coupled with the short wheelbase make it very bumpy and really uncomfortable on a daily basis. This also means in less than ideal conditions, even if you are driving purely for fun, it can be downright difficult to drive quickly. That’s the ‘Bains tombstone’ effect coming into play I guess. You also need the concentration and considered muscle twitch fibres of a tai-chi sensei to get a smooth gear change out of it if you’re not driving like you stole it.

What there is to love – is that at the end of the day this crazy, hot-hatch doesn’t hide you away from the action. It doesn’t wrap you in kid gloves and tell you everything is going to be okay. You’re so involved in the drive that your mind is clear and you’re not worrying about anything else ever. That makes it safer than all the chevrons and smooth tarmac in the world.

What we like…

• Maddest, most fun hot hatchback you can have for the money.
• Petrol motor delivers high in the rev range.
• The Normally aspirated motor feels and sounds ‘old school.’

What we would like…

• While its cool to be ‘old school’ it still lacks torque.
• Them to ditch the stripes, or you can just buy a standard RS.
• For the love of all that is holy – soften the ride or just avoid the Cup chassis.

Ray Leathern has been test driving and critiquing cars for four years now. He is South Africa’s 2011 Motoring Journalist of the Year in the magazine category, as well as a member of SA’s 2011 Car of the Year jury. What Ray writes, we read, and we suggest you do too.

Following last year’s launch of Renault Sport’s Twingo Gordini RS, Renault South Africa has expanded the Gordini range with the launch of the new Clio Gordini Renault Sport at the 2011 Knysna Hillclimb, sponsored by Renault.

Clio Gordini is to Renault, as John Cooper Works is to Mini and DS3 is to Citroen, that is, a fast hot hatch with an added dash of style and exclusivity. ”The Clio Gordini Renault Sport combines the award-winning credentials of the Clio Renault Sport with the proud heritage of the Gordini name to produce a truly segment-defining hot hatch,” says Xavier Gobille, managing director of Renault South Africa. “Accordingly, it will appeal to a growing number of drivers seeking an exclusive yet affordable performance car with a distinctive character and a race-inspired legacy to match.”

Amédée Gordini established the Gordini company that transformed production cars into racers, modified regular engines for competition in endurance and grand prix racing, and even built specialist racing cars under his own banner. In 1956 Renault approached ‘The Sorcerer’, as he was commonly known, to develop its rear-engined Dauphine sedan into a competitive rally car and the rest, as they say, is history. Eventually the Gordini company was merged into Renault and it became the foundation for Renault Sport Technologies (RS), which has gone on to produce the impressive RS versions of the Clio, Mégane and Twingo over the years. It’s fitting, then, that Renault pays homage to Amédée Gordini and the legendary cars that he spurred the development of.

In the case of the new Renault Clio Gordini Renault Sport, the hatch retains all the virtues that make it our favorite hot hatch of the moment, but adds the eye-catching and unique Gordini styling. Easliy identifiable from the standard or Clio RS ’20th’ Special Edition models, the Clio Gordini wears exclusive Malta Blue paint, together with twin white stripes that extend from the bonnet, over the roof to the tailgate – paying tribute to the racing Gordinis of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Further styling enhancements include white exterior mirror housings and F1-style aerodynamic front splitter, diamond-effect 12-spoke aluminium alloy wheels, as well as ‘Gordini Series’ badges on each flank.

The Gordini spirit continues in the cabin too, with Gordini-badged Renault Sport seats, trimmed in black leather with blue accents along the lower and upper side bolsters. The top section of the leather-trimmed three-spoke sports steering wheel is finished in blue leather, with two white stripes to indicate the straight-ahead position. Similarly, the gear lever features a blue leather gaiter and a metallic Gordini-branded gear knob, bolstered by a numbered Gordini plaque on the gearlever console, carpet mats with blue edging and Gordini branding.

The instrumentation echoes this performance hatchback’s racing disposition, including a rev counter dial with white background, as well as the on-board Renault Sport Telemetry Display that made its debut on the Mégane RS Cup. The system provides the driver with real-time performance and vehicle data, as well as several options to tailor the throttle and engine response.

As mentioned, the Renault Clio Gordini RS retains the virtues of the standard Clio RS, meaning a superb chassis and suspension system, matched to a potent, high-revving naturally aspirated engine. The Clio Gordini RS features the sportier Cup chassis as standard, which offers a firmer and more focused set-up, providing an even more exhilarating driving experience than the standard car. An independent steering axis front suspension ensures precise steering and together with low-profile 215/45 R17 tyres, endows the hatch with serious levels of grip. Stopping power comes courtesy of Brembo four-piston callipers that bite into ventilated 312 mm front discs and 300 mm solid discs at the rear. ABS with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution is standard. The Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) can be turned off for spirited driving, such as at the Knysna Hillclimb where media raced the cars up the 1.9 kilometer course.

At the heart of the Clio Renault Sport is a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated 4-cylinder engine that develops 147.5 kW, or a class-leading 75 kW per litre. The engine pulls strongly all the way to the 7 500 r/min redline, although peak power is achieved at 7 100 r/min. Torque of 215 Nm is available at 5 400 r/min, but as media found out after the first few smokey starts at the Knysna Hillclimb, the Clio Gordini is plenty quick off the mark without the tacho needle pointing skywards. Once on the move, the slick-shifting six-speed manual gearbox is one of the most satisfying to use and plays an important role in the Clio’s 0 – 100 km/h sprint of 6.9 seconds.

As the range-topping variant in the Clio Renault Sport range, the Gordini boasts a premium level of standard features, including a rain sensor and automatic headlight activation, dedicated cornering lights and electrically folding exterior mirrors. Other convenience features include cruise control with speed limiter, Renault’s hands-free key and ignition card, automatic climate control and dark-tinted rear windows. On the audio front, the Gordini Renault Sport is equipped with an 80-watt CD receiver with MP3 playback, a separate dashboard-mounted display and steering wheel controls, as well as Bluetooth and multimedia connectivity with USB and iPod connections.

Whether you have penchant for hot hatches, historic racing heritage and stand-out styling, or even if you don’t, the new Renault Clio Gordini Renault Sport is a car that will never fail to involve its driver from the moment the brilliant, naturally aspirated, 2.0-litre engine fires into life. In fact, we feel like getting our hands on a set of keys and driving one right now!

The Renault Clio Gordini Renault Sport is priced at R279 900 and includes a 5-year/150 000 km warranty and 3-year/60 000 km service plan.

The 1 000th Renault Clio RS Gordini rolled off the assembly line at Renault’s Alpine plant in Dieppe, France earlier this month and the good news is that Renault South Africa has confirmed that the Clio Renault Sport Gordini will be launched locally this May.

After Renault’s successful support of the Knysna Hillclimb last year, during which the company launched the Mégane RS model, Renault is again choosing to launch its latest sporty model in combination with this action-packed motorsport event. “Renault has a rich heritage of participation in motorsport as well as producing exciting Renault Sport performance cars,” says Xavier Gobille, managing director of Renault South Africa. “The Knysna Hillclimb provides an ideal platform to showcase Renault’s commitment to sporting machinery.”

The first Knysna hillclimb took place in 2009 and it immediately captured the attention of the country’s motorsport enthusiasts, leading to a bigger and more involving event in 2010. This year the event will take place on Saturday 21/Sunday 22 May and forms part of a week long motoring festival, dubbed the ‘Knysna Speed Festival’.

The two-kilometre hillclimb route snakes its way through the lush countryside to Simola Country Estate and provides spectators with clear and safe vantage points from which to catch all the action. From classics to supercars there is something for everyone and, with multiple national and international championship title holders competing in the various classes, there is no shortage of spectacular driving and close competition.

For more details of the events taking place during the week-long festival click here, or visit the festival’s website www.speedfestival.co.za.