As if Renault didn’t already have enough brands under its belt, with RenaultSport, Gordini and Alpine, as well as a possible luxury brand called Initiale, they will be reviving yet another old name from the (more recent) history books: Williams.
The name was used on the excellent Clio Williams of the late 1990s, a car which became a cult icon, and has remained so over the years. According to autocar.co.uk, the name will be attached to a special version of the all-new Clio RS, which will be tuned to produce 220 hp, some 23 hp more than the regular model. This means 100 km/h (62 mph) should come up in around 6.5 seconds, while in-gear performance will undoubtedly be looked at as well. It may also feature a Cup-esque treatment, of weight-shedding and stiffer suspension, in order to handle the extra oomph, but this is currently just speculation.
We currently don’t know if Williams will be involved in any way with the car, yet since Renault is trying really hard to get as much as they can out of their F1 effort, the team may be brought on board, for authenticity’s sake. If this materializes, it would just 10 hp down on the old Megane RS, yet it is considerably lighter than that car, so it should be well-worth the wait.
We currently don’t know if Williams will be involved in any way with the car, yet since Renault is trying really hard to get as much as they can out of their F1 effort, the team may be brought on board, for authenticity’s sake. If this materializes, it would just 10 hp down on the old Megane RS, yet it is considerably lighter than that car, so it should be well-worth the wait.