I mostly remember the original Renault Clio for its hardcore Williams version. It's a modern classic and looks stunning with gold wheels. But for the vast majority of the people who bought the car back in the 90s, the famous Nicole and Papa were the real deal makers.
After it replaced the popular Renault 5 across Europe, the Clio was launched in Britain on March 29, 1991. That means it's been exactly 25 years to the day since the French car reset the standard for style in the supermini class.
Nowadays, we complain a lot about cars grown in size all the time. However, the Clio did that too 25 years ago. Compared to the 5, it was 2 inches longer and 2.5 inches wider. The wheelbase had also grown considerably, allowing rear passengers to sit in relative comfort.
In Britain, the range started with the RL 1.2 3-door at £7,190 and rose to the RT 1.4 five-door at £8,980. The following year, Renault also introduced a more powerful 1.8-liter 16V model and the first diesel engine, the 1.9 dCi. By the time a mid-life facelift was introduced in 1994, Clios had accounted for almost half of UK sales.
It's hard to explain how crazy-popular the Clio TV adverts were back in the 90s. French actress Estelle Skornik played the role of Nicole alongside Max Douchin as "Papa." Estelle was judged the second most recognizable person in the UK, ahead of the then-serving Prime Minister John Major, Chris Evans and Bob Hoskins.
The Clio II continued to be successful. In 2002, it achieved the best year ever for the nameplate, with 86,337 deliveries in the UK market. Two updates kept it relevant until 2005 when the Clio III was presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show. This was the first car in the supermini segment to get a five-star Euro NCAP rating, something Renault had become famous for. Between 2008 and 2012, a Sport Tourer was also available, though the Clio IV did not continue this tradition.
Renault kept the sport 5 GT Turbo in production until a hot Clio was developed. Although the Clio 16V with its 137 hp 1.8-liter engine was a great start, people mostly remember only the Williams, built to celebrate Renault’s Formula One World Championship wins. It featured a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated engine making 150 hp and close-ratio gearing.
This setup was kept and steadily improved over the years, as RS engineers added sports exhaust, variable valve timing and high-pressure injection systems. Many still consider the 182 Trophy model that arrived in 2005 to be the best supermini ever, although we can also appreciate the modern refinement of the 200 model from 2012.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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