Renault Sport officially launched the all-new four-wheel-drive Renault Clio Rally3 at the Pas de la Casa Circuit in Andorra on Sunday afternoon, becoming the brand´s first four-wheel-drive rally car.
In 2019 the FIA announced the new FIA Rally Pyramid and added a brand new class for more simple four-wheel-drive rally cars. M-Sport Poland was the first manufacturer to have a car ready for the class, and the Ford Fiesta Rally3 has had many great successes in the FIA World Rally Championship. but also in other international and national rally series, they will now face a new competitor.
The new Renault Clio Rally3 is the first all-wheel drive Clio, it was jointly designed by the teams at Viry-Châtillon, the Alpine manufacturing plant in Dieppe Jean Rédélé and the BWT Alpine F1 team in Enstone in the United Kingdom. The rally car was presented on Sunday after completing a development program with almost 5,000 kilometers of tests, the Clio Rally3 continues its homologation process with the FIA. Since the redesign of the Rally Pyramid, Renault has established itself as the front-wheel-drive benchmark, with the successes of the Clio Rally5 and Clio Rally4, launched in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
The car is powered by a 1.3-liter TCe 16-valve turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with direct injection that puts out a total of 260 hp and 415 Nm and it uses a SADEV gearbox with a limited-slip differential. The rear wing has been designed by the BWT Alpine F1 team and is “considered to be simple in appearance, but highly effective”.
The Clio Rally3 is expected to have undergone the homologation process around April so the car will be eligible to be used during the summer, the tarmac and gravel versions of the car are both priced at €122,000 excluding VAT.
