The Renault Clio RS 200 has been in the limelight in recent months, and while we’ve pretty much covered most aspects, from pricing to its design and performance figures, one neat feature that the car comes with is launch control, which doesn’t seem to be mentioned that often, not even by Renault itself.
We searched YouTube and found a few videos of the new hot Clio, to see if the system works, and how it goes about doing its thing.
It seems that it doesn’t have a big button for the driver to select it, instead it can be automatically enabled when the car is put into manual mode (pulling the gear selector left, towards the driver), then holding the brake and pressing the throttle.
We did not find a video of someone doing a launch start while filming the gauges, but the revs are kept at around 3,000 rpm, before the car shoots ahead seamlessly and reaches 100 km/h (62 mph) in 6.7 seconds.
From the outside, the RS sounds a bit like a muffled rally car, as it hits the early rev limiter, prior to setting off. Still, even with three selectable driving modes, launch control and less conspicuous bodywork, the new Clio RS lacks the simple and down-to-earth nature of its predecessor.
VIDEO