It was at the end of August this year that Renault pulled the curtains off their R.S. 01 at the Moscow Motor Show. We saw it, we liked it and now we're back for a second look, as the French have seen fit to also show it at the Essen Motor Show, among all the coolest tuning projects of the year.
The R.S. 01 is like every childhood dream with Renault badges. It sits low to the ground, has massive carbon fiber aero elements and looks like nothing else currently on the road. Ferrari who?
For the 2015 racing series, Renault Sport has developed yet another machine. But make no mistake, the R.S. 01 has nothing in common with the beefed up Megane and Clio RS of hatches. It's actually built around the FIA's Le Mans regulations.
What we think of it is probably less important than what racing legend Alan Prost thinks. After the first few laps of the Jerez track in Spain, here's what he said: "The Renault Sport R.S. 01 is magnificent, and that’s important in terms of image. This is a new step forward for Renault, since it is launching what is actually a typical Endurance car. It’s a real race car, while being closely linked to the product since its design was largely inspired by the new production models."
This beast of a car is said to way just 1.1 tons and will be powered by a 500 horsepower engine. The seven-speed sequential gearbox was developed for this car by Sadev and the rubber comes from Michelin.
Not impressed? Think of it another way: it's made from carbon and powered by the same engine as the Nissan GT-R, only it weighs 640 kg less. No wonder Renault says one of these babies costs nearly €300,000.
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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