Renault refused to sell the customer a Clio RS station wagon, so he built it himself. Now it can be yours
yesterday | Peter Miller
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Photo: Bram Vaandering, published with permission
It’s probably the only car of its kind in the world, and it certainly harks back to the days when you could buy both a small station wagon and a small hot hatch. Once upon a time only Škoda offered a combination of both, the owner did not choose Renault. And so he did it himself.
It’s remarkable how the perception of the same things can change over time. When we learned at the time that the Renault Clio RS would have a turbo, an automatic transmission and a fake engine sound, we were horrified. When we heard that the possibility of also making a station wagon version was on the table, we thought it was the completion of the destruction work. But then we came into contact with the Clio RS and discovered that there is nothing more that can be done to the station wagon. At most it would underline the overall new character of the car, which has moved far away from the original values hidden behind the letters mentioned.
While in the previous generation we called it a super sports car, the first Clio RS with turbo and automatic transmission was something in the style of the French Fabia RS. This is not a slander, in short, the furious car has become above all a fast car, and with that – as with the Fabia – a more practical body is not incompatible. However, Renault ultimately did not go down this path and although it continued to offer the Clio as a station wagon as one of the few small car manufacturers, it never arrived in the more practical version of the RS.
In the end, we can perfectly understand the desire of Bram Vaandering, who once wanted to buy a Clio RS station wagon. The car company told him no, it wouldn’t be such a specialty just for him, but he himself couldn’t stand it. So he took a used stock Grandtour station wagon in “baby blue” and transformed it into an RS himself.
We’re really not exaggerating, the car in the photos below has received absolutely everything from the RS variant. It is powered by a 1.6 turbo engine with an EDC dual-clutch automatic transmission. But the “heresy” is also the steering, the wiring, the on-board electronics, simply everything. Compared to the series RS, the car also received several partial improvements, the engine received intake from Airtec and a Wagner compressed air intercooler. In the case of the chassis, the KW V3 adjustable shock absorbers do their job.
The car was created by gluing two existing cars together, so the mileage is ambiguous: the key technology has driven only 68 thousand km and joins a number of other details of the restyling version, the body of the station wagon with partial technical elements comes from car before modernization and has covered 150 thousand km. However, both data are only partially relevant, many parts are new, so the car should also work as a whole. How much for him? The owner is not modest, he wants 19,000 euros for his jewel, or approximately 469,000 CZK. That makes it by far the most expensive Clio station wagon far and wide, but it’s probably unique in the world. If you are interested, the car is physically located in the Netherlands.
Renault never offered the Clio RS as a station wagon, you can still buy it, the owner built it himself from two used cars. Photo: Bram Vaandering, published with permission
Source: Bram Vaandering via RENAULT Marketplace@Facebook
Peter Miler
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