A little controversial this one. First off, I love my 197. Its loadsa fun and probably my fav of all the hot hatchbacks I've owned, but one thing that bugs me about its handling is the steering - I find it too light.
I first started driving hot hatches in 1994 with a Peugeot 106 XSI which had a 1.4 96 bhp engine. What made it epic was it only weighed 850 kilos and had no power steering. It was epic fun around country roads and had similar exhaust grunt to the 197. It was like an angry little terrier dog when you went over 5000 rpm.
Then came a couple of 106 GTis which I loved for that extra bit of power and while it certainly cornered better, I don't think the handling or the feel was as quite good as the XSI - possibly due to the power assisted steering.
So now I've been driving the Clio 197 for a year, the one thing I wish is that the steering was a little heavier and had a little more feel. Its a riot around corners, is the fastest hatch I've owned and it really makes a great sound when its at high revs, but maybe the one thing its lacking is feel and a bit of meat when turning it in to the bends. Its almost like its too easy.
Obviously I'm not going to argue with Renault who've been making brilliant hot hatches for donkey's years and clearly know **** loads more than me, but its just a though.
Happy to hear anyone's opinions on this.
Rob
I first started driving hot hatches in 1994 with a Peugeot 106 XSI which had a 1.4 96 bhp engine. What made it epic was it only weighed 850 kilos and had no power steering. It was epic fun around country roads and had similar exhaust grunt to the 197. It was like an angry little terrier dog when you went over 5000 rpm.
Then came a couple of 106 GTis which I loved for that extra bit of power and while it certainly cornered better, I don't think the handling or the feel was as quite good as the XSI - possibly due to the power assisted steering.
So now I've been driving the Clio 197 for a year, the one thing I wish is that the steering was a little heavier and had a little more feel. Its a riot around corners, is the fastest hatch I've owned and it really makes a great sound when its at high revs, but maybe the one thing its lacking is feel and a bit of meat when turning it in to the bends. Its almost like its too easy.
Obviously I'm not going to argue with Renault who've been making brilliant hot hatches for donkey's years and clearly know **** loads more than me, but its just a though.
Happy to hear anyone's opinions on this.
Rob