The RenaultSport Clio 182 of 2004 onwards was the latest iteration of the fast Clio. Based on the Clio II, it built on the rampant success of the 172, offering fast French car enthusiasts the chance to sit behind the wheel of a 182PS (approx. 180bhp) engine that delivered its extra urge courtesy of a 4-2-1 manifold and high-flow catalytic convertor; old school engineering rather than software tweaks, in other words.

And it was a proper job; the Clio 182 even lost its spare wheel well in order to make room for the dual-exit exhaust courtesy of a new flat floor to the boot.

The perforated Alcantara seats now featured white dots and it sat on new eight-spoke alloy wheels. But, the Clio 182 was very much a case of evolution rather than revolution – and why not? After all, why mess with what was proving to be a very successful, and lucrative, formula…

Options (and we all know that options are where the cream is…) included the ‘Cup’ front splitter and rear spoiler as part of the Cup Style Pack, plus the Carminat sat-nav that almost no-one specified on the grounds of cost and the fact it was all but useless.

Much more useful than an iffy sat-nav was the Cup Chassis Pack, which featured a strengthened hub as well as lower, stiffer suspension plus an anthracite option for the wheels.

Both the Cup Chassis Pack and the Cup Style Pack came as standard on the Clio 182 Cup. Available only in Racing Blue or Inferno Orange, it lost a few bits of non-essential kit in order to reduce weight. The seats were cloth too, and the much of the rest of the trim was downgraded, presumably in the expectation that it would be binned anyway.

The final version was the Clio 182 Trophy you are looking at here. Based on the Clio 182 Cup, just 500 cars were built for the UK market, with another 50 going to Switzerland. Sitting on 16-inch Turini alloy wheels from Speedline, it also featured the Clio V6’s rear spoiler, Recaro Trendline seats, and exclusive Capsicum Red coachwork with Trophy decals.

A plaque gave the car’s build number but the real plus point was the Sachs remote-reservoir dampers, which lifted the Clio 182’s handling and ride from sublime to other-worldly. In fact, the Clio 182’s chassis and handling was so effective that Evo magazine named the Clio 182 Trophy its ‘People’s Performance Car of the Year’, while Autocar crowned it the ‘World’s Greatest Hot Hatch’.

2005 Renault CLIO 182 Trophy

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