Lewis Hamilton’s brother Nicolas Hamilton starred in his first motor race last weekend – in the family tradition, on live TV.

Also in family tradition, he had a stellar first lap, with a great start and some tenacious diving-for-gaps earning him a good few places by the first corner. Remind you of anyone?

Nic Hamilton’s racing in the cut-and-thrust of Renault Clios. As an ardent fan of the championship, I wouldn’t wish it on any beginner – yet Nic lined up on Sunday for his first race, after just 3 months driving a race car.

Before then, it was Gran Turismo and Forza: like Nissan/PlayStation star Lucas Ordonez, Nic’s been turned into a real life racing driver courtesy of the finest coaching. Power to him, as well.

There’s a local interest for me here, though. See, over Christmas, I went jogging, on a slightly different route around the Wednesbury home of my girlfriend Tam. And what should I see, but the metallic grey trucks of Total Control Racing – complete with fluorescent orange ‘TCR’ logo bouncing off the snow I was pretty foolishly jogging upon.

I thus found out more: discovered they’re a team that competes (or has competed) in the Renault Clio Championship, Porsche Carrera Cup ,Ginetta G50 Cup and SEAT Leon Championship. Quite a role call.

And, now, I’ve also found out they’re running the boy Hamilton in the Clios this year. A chap down the road has even probably stuck on the Vodafone logos that caught the attentions of so many at Brands this weekend (not least big bro Lewis).

That’s quite cool. Hence, I’m going to find out more. I’m off to Donington next week, for both some BTCC action and a catch-up with the TCR boys.

More anon: for now, make sure you watch ITV4 next Sunday, for the latest in installment in the Hamilton racing dynasty.

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RENAULT PR guys are insatiable car nuts, whose geekery for all things 1980s matches mine.

That’s why we were both clamouring over the Gordini Renaultsports at the Geneva show, and why I almost bowed down to them when they revealed a gem to me.

Special wheels on the Gordini Twingo and Clio? Complete with deep blue tint to the painted internals? The UK chaps have named them. What as?

Get this: Raider!

That’s as in Renault 5 GT Turbo Raider, the 1990 special edition that came with blue metallic paint and blue-painted alloys. Instead of naming the wheels after a French seaside resort or philosophical movement, the UK boys have raided (ahem) their history and gave me an excuse to drop a jump to a car many would kill for.

Heritage? The Clio Renaultsport Gordini oozes it. Already God’s own hot hatch, there will be fisticuffs in the MR office over who does the launch of this one…

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TORQUE is all-important to the drivability of a car. if you want manic high-rev fun, you’ll get an S2000. Bags of bhp. No torque.

But if you want something that’s quick when you’re not, too, bag a Golf GTI. Decent power – but no shortage of Newton metres, either.

This was brought home by a drive in Renault’s Clio TCe. The 1.2-litre engine is lost in the bonnet, and it’s easy to miss the tiny turbo. But it’s this that turns it from languid to lugubrious.

The torque curves show why. Here, on the left, is the torque plot for the teeny 1.2. On the right is that for the teeny 1.2, plus turbo. The shape tells you what you need to know: on the left, it’s peaky. On the right, it’s flat.

For torque, peaky is bad. Flat is good. It means, with the TCE, you’ve got 135Nm NM from 1800 rpm – so it’s responsive in normal running. Has guts. At the same engine revs, the non-turbo is muscling out just 90Nm.

In other words, at the same engine speed, the TCe has 50 percent more muscle!

As most drivers both don’t like revving engines all the time, nor continually changing gear, this means that, everyday, the TCe is the more pleasant car. easier, punchier, more refined, nicer. Confirmed by a charge on the road; it’s a peach.

But this torquey profile made me realise that, actually, I could have garnered all this simply by looking at the torque curve. There was my evidence – merely confirmed by a test drive.

There’s something else, too. Weight. The Clio is a heavy car – 1080kg. So it needs a hefty slab of torque to counter this. A Peugeot 107? That’s got just 93 Nm of torque overall – but weighs just 800kg. So, doesn’t feel as torque-deficient as a Clio 1.2 non-turbo.

There’s a fair bit to all this – I’m looking forward to investigating more in the coming months.

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RenaultSport past to inspire turbo future

Renault engineers have been busy, facelifting the best-selling Clio range. Enter, thus, the Clio 2009.

I’ve just waved one goodbye, after a week’s test. Here, via Flickr, is my image road test of what it’s like!

Feel free to rock on on over there, to see what you think.

And do please leave comments on all the images!

RenaultSport past to inspire turbo future?

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The latest thing to sell cars

RENAULT’S Clio RenaultSport 200 was destined not to get the turbo its torque profile needs back in 1988.

That’s when Renault announced a major change for its hot hatch engine policy.

See, up to then, turbos had ruled for the Regie. The maker was one of the first in the arena, with the brilliant Renault 5 GT Turbo. In Phase 2 guise, it even found out how to stop them going on fire.

But, come 1988, and the launch of the 140bhp 1.8-litre 16v, all that turbo expertise (garnered, remember, from bringing us F1’s first-ever turbo unit) was consigned to history.

For the hot Clio, due in the early 1990s, there was to be no GT Turbo version. Instead, we’d get a 16v version. (Which, admittedly, was brilliant. Mesmerising, in 2.0-litre Clio Williams form. I’d lose teeth to own one today.)

What was the first car to show off this new 16v engine? The now-forgotten Renault 19 16v. But it’s not by me: as a kid, I used to walk the dog on a special route, just so’s I could go past a red one, with that idolised ‘16v’ badge on the boot.

Those cars back then had one key advantage over today’s, though. They were light. Today, though, cars are much, much heavier. So, 200bhp the latest Clio may well have, but unless you’re on it, vigour is hard to spot. The power has gone up, but the torque needed to hit this sweet spot hasn’t.

It needs a turbo, to zizz up this lower end, and help you reach the good times quicker. That’s what we’ve become used to nowadays. That’s why the Vauxhall Corsa VXR is a bit of an animal.

And that’s why, I’m sure, Renault will eventually turn back time.

RENAULTSPORT Megane customers want sporty cars, but they also want low running costs. Apparently.

That’s why Renault doesn’t fit a rear spoiler.

See, it would up the drag, worsen the Cd, and push up mpg.

That’s also why, it was explained to me on the car’s launch, there’s a RenaultSport Megane diesel – with multi-stage Piezo injectors, the last pulse of which is charged with burning off soot emissions. Overall, 45mpg. Good, oui?

Fear not though, I was told. Being racy is still the prime reason for the RenaultSport.

The need for bigger brakes, for example, led Renault to develop trick double-axis front suspension. Another benefit of which just happens to be high stiffness levels.

As an engineer explained, it means there’s ‘no wobble under hard acceleration, so no geometry loss, so no steering squirm.

‘During cornering, forces on the front outside corner are high, which distorts the suspension. Not on double-axis though, which is twice as stiff as MacPherson strut.’

And that’s not all. ‘Less parasitic movement means less need for steering correction, so it’s more precise…’

Blimey. But yet more precise still is the Cup version. This has ‘reinforced dampers, 37 percent more rear spring stiffness, and ESP that can be turned completely off.’ Hardcore features for hardcore drivers.

Clio Cup Runneth Over

He was a handling geek, my insider. And how I delighted in speaking with him, over the fizzy water. I soon got him onto the Clio RenaultSport, where his revelations were just as cool.

Did you know, for example, the Clio’s seats help lower the car’s centre of gravity? It’s also 27 percent stiffer in spring, and 10 percent firmer in damping… ‘And the double-axis front suspension separates steering efforts from the damper.’

Now, it was a veritable flurry of gems from him. Four-pot Brembos come on the Clio, which he revealed to me (but not the guys within Renault who control costs) are ‘oversized’.

The rear diffuser? It has a 26 degree angle, creating a depression under the car, which ‘weights’ the back down at speed. Not only does it reduce lift by a factor of 3, but it also ‘primes’ the suspension for best response at speed.

Genius. And for real.

I can’t repeat what he said about makers who fit false rear diffusers.

‘The diffuser also does away with the need for a rear boot spoiler,’ he added.

Which takes us back to the start. That’s why Renault doesn’t fit one to the Clio RenaultSport, either. But why, ahem, Vauxhall has to fit one to the ‘diffuser-equipped’ Corsa VXR. Ahem, ahem.

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