{"id":71700,"date":"2009-12-08T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-08T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/2009\/12\/08\/street-legal-racer-renaultsport-launches-entry-level-rally-spec\/"},"modified":"2009-12-08T17:40:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T22:40:00","slug":"street-legal-racer-renaultsport-launches-entry-level-rally-spec-twingo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/71700","title":{"rendered":"Street Legal Racer: Renaultsport launches entry-level rally-spec Twingo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Filed under: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/category\/motorsports\/\" rel=\"tag\">Motorsports<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/category\/euro\/\" rel=\"tag\">Europe<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/category\/hatchbacks\/\" rel=\"tag\">Hatchback<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/category\/renault\/\" rel=\"tag\">Renault<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/category\/special-limited-editions\/\" rel=\"tag\">Specialty<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><small><a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/gallery\/renaultsport-twingo-r2\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"4\" hspace=\"4\" border=\"1\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blogcdn.com\/www.autoblog.com\/media\/2009\/12\/webopt-twingor2-04.jpg\" \/><\/a><br \/> Renaultsport Twingo R2 &#8211; Click above for high-res image gallery<\/small><\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<p> For such a tiny car, Renault&#8217;s punchy little Twingo RS sure has been getting a lot attention lately. First came the launch of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/2009\/11\/25\/renault-introduces-twingo-gordini-r-s-hot-hatch\/\">Twingo Gordini edition<\/a>, reviving a long-dormant racing nameplate for the French automaker. Then Jeremy Clarkson took it for a ride (and a swim) around (and under) Belfast. Now Renault&#8217;s motorsport division has released the a pair of entry-level rally machines based on the pint-size hot hatch.<\/p>\n<p> Called the Twingo Renaultsport R1 and R2, these are Renault&#8217;s latest offerings to aspiring rally drivers getting in at the bottom. They pack 1.6-liter 16-valve four-bangers pumping out a substantial 160 horsepower &#8211; 27 over the standard RS &#8211; driving the front wheels through a five-speed sequential gearbox with a slip-resistant dog clutch and wheel-mounted shift paddles. There&#8217;s little to distinguish the rally machines from their street-going counterparts, but inside, the interior has been stripped out and fitted with a roll cage. <\/p>\n<p> Upgrading from the R1 to the R2 (which can be performed at any later point, helpful if your team is dependent on prize cash to re-invest into the car) gains Sabelt buckets with six-point harness and a few more bells and whistles. The best part? They&#8217;re apparently still street legal (in Europe at least) so you can drive it home after the rally instead of loading it onto a truck. A fully equipped Renaultsport Twingo R2 will set you back &euro;38,980, or the equivalent of $58k in American greenbacks&#8230;if only it were actually available here. You know the drill: details in the press release after the jump, high-res photos in the gallery below.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div class=\"postgallery\">\n<p><strong>Gallery: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/photos\/renaultsport-twingo-r2\/low\/\">Renaultsport Twingo R2<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/photos\/renaultsport-twingo-r2\/low\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blogcdn.com\/www.autoblog.com\/media\/2009\/12\/twingor2-01_thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/photos\/renaultsport-twingo-r2\/low\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blogcdn.com\/www.autoblog.com\/media\/2009\/12\/twingor2-03_thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/photos\/renaultsport-twingo-r2\/low\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blogcdn.com\/www.autoblog.com\/media\/2009\/12\/twingor2-04_thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/photos\/renaultsport-twingo-r2\/low\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blogcdn.com\/www.autoblog.com\/media\/2009\/12\/twingor2-int1_thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/photos\/renaultsport-twingo-r2\/low\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blogcdn.com\/www.autoblog.com\/media\/2009\/12\/twingor2-int2_thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p> [Source: Renault]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/2009\/12\/08\/street-legal-racer-renaultsport-launches-entry-level-rally-spec\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Continue reading <em>Street Legal Racer: Renaultsport launches entry-level rally-spec Twingo<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/2009\/12\/08\/street-legal-racer-renaultsport-launches-entry-level-rally-spec\/\">Street Legal Racer: Renaultsport launches entry-level rally-spec Twingo<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\">Autoblog<\/a> on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:40:00 EST.  Please see our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.weblogsinc.com\/feed-terms\/\">terms for use of feeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;\"><\/h6>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/2009\/12\/08\/street-legal-racer-renaultsport-launches-entry-level-rally-spec\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to this entry\">Permalink<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/forward\/19269874\/\" title=\"Send this entry to a friend via email\">Email this<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/2009\/12\/08\/street-legal-racer-renaultsport-launches-entry-level-rally-spec\/#comments\" title=\"View reader comments on this entry\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Filed under: Motorsports, Europe, Hatchback, Renault, Specialty Renaultsport Twingo R2 &#8211; Click above for high-res image gallery For such a tiny car, Renault&#8217;s punchy little Twingo RS sure has been getting a lot attention lately. First came the launch of the Twingo Gordini edition, reviving a long-dormant racing nameplate for the French automaker. Then Jeremy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}