Best known for creating some of the world’s fastest hot hatches, in the various Clio RS and Megane RS guises, RenaultSport really is a force to be reckoned with.
With the exception of the Renault Sandero RS produced exclusively for the Brazilian market, currently RenaultSport only produces hotted-up versions of the Clio and Megane.
According to Car Advice however, the division’s vice president of sales, marketing and communication, Regis Fricotte, revealed that further Renault models would receive the RS treatment.
To get approved, they must be technically feasible to produce, have enough market demand and are economically viable.
“If you have those three conditions and the guys feel like we can do something, we will do it. But it has got to have those three. In other words we are not going to go do a crazy car that is not for sale”, he said.
“We want to develop RenaultSport. It has been reconfirmed by Mr Ghosn (CEO of Renault-Nissan), that Renaults wants to redevelop its motorsport activities globally, so we would be looking at other potentials to develop the Renault Sport brand. It’s not only limited to Clio and Megane,” Fricotte added.
While the number of performance SUVs is increasing, Fricotte didn’t seem interested in an RS-badged off-roader: “On an SUV you would need other things than just acceleration and chassis, you are not going to lower an SUV, it’s the opposite of what it has been created for, so there are other compromises and other positioning to be developed if you’re looking for an SUV… if today R.S. is a [known] name, it’s because for the last 15 years we haven’t been silly or managed to make stupid things.”
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