Where's the sun gone?' asks John Hayman. Quite. When he left England in the Clio 172 it was unseasonally warm and sunny. When his ferry docked at Bilbao, he clamped on his shades and didn't take them off until he'd crossed the border from Spain into Portugal. Billy Connolly says that there's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes. It's an assertion that snapper Shepherd wouldn't find amusing. He's kitted out head to toe in nifty waterproof gear but unfortunately North Face don't yet make camera-sized jackets. It's tipping it down and blowing a gale, and the forecast for the Clio doesn't look good, either.

The chances of the Clio 172 coming away from this encounter without a serious bruising look slim. Not for the first time, of course. The Civic Type-R has already muscled in on the Renault's patch, using its own favoured weapon against it ΂- horsepower. Now the Cooper S wants a piece of it, and the 172 is pretty much defenceless against the Cooper's first line of attack ΂- looks.

Since its make-over less than two years into its life, the 172 has lost all the visual aggression it had. It's now hard to tell it apart from the more humble versions, and parked next to the Cooper it looks almost like a hire car. If their prices were hanging from their sun visors, you'd think they were the wrong way around, though in truth the Cooper is so keenly priced it makes most rivals appear expensive.

BMW likes to describe the Cooper S as the most powerful car in its class, suggesting that it falls into the same bracket as the Peugeot 106 or Citro΃«n Saxo. In isolation you can convince yourself that it is that small, but as soon as you park it next to the Clio, the game is up. It's as short as a 106, yes, but much wider and taller. In fact, the shadow it casts is at least as big as the Clio's. And at 1140kg, it's heavy ΂- a substantial 105kg more than the 172.
Swap the Cooper's driving seat for the Clio's and the first surprise is that the Mini doesn't have a monopoly on quality feel. The Renault's leather/Alcantara trimmed seats are better shaped, lower mounted and more generously proportioned, and the big wheel sits comfortably in your hands. Only the pedals let it down ΂- they have an insubstantial action after the Mini's and fizz with vibration at certain revs.

Your surroundings are much more low-key and conventionally styled, of course, the only extravagances being brushed aluminium door- latches, shiny perforated pedal finishers and fillets of carbon-pattern bright trim for the facia and doors. The best you can say is that at least it's a lot easier on the eye.

On points, the Clio is way behind but the core appeal of the 172 has always been how it goes, not how it looks, and a glance at the two cars' power-to-weight ratios suggests that the contest ought to swing the Renault's way any time soon. The chubby little Mini manages a healthy 143bhp per ton but that's far short of the Renault's 167bhp per ton. And, boy, can you feel it. Put your foot down and there's no hanging about admiring the solid way the torque builds as you do in the Cooper. Although the Clio's peak torque isn't as great as the Mini's (147lb ft versus 155) and doesn't arrive until 5400rpm, when that 2-litre 16-valve engine comes on song at about 2500rpm the 172 just legs it into the distance. It's a great engine, gutsy right the way through to the limiter.

The Cooper's supercharged motor never seems to hit that top note. The car's weight seems to smother it, and the thought that BMW's engineers missed a trick not giving it six close ratios takes hold again.

Chassis-wise, the Clio and Cooper are harder to separate, though they have very different approaches. The Renault has a more organic feel, tucking into turns with more roll before settling into a comfortable, responsive stance. Back off, the weight transfers and its tail shifts to tighten the line; hit the gas and the front tyres drift progressively on the wet surface, the steering communicating their grip lucidly.

The Cooper's wheel doesn't provide so much detail but its rack is higher geared and more responsive. You can enjoy its dartiness, too, because its roll-free chassis is much more neutral and just as grippy. It rides the bumps a fraction better, too, though you do have to keep an eye out for sharp transverse ridges which induce old-style Mini bounce.

Which is best depends on how you like your car to behave. A confident driver would enjoy the Clio's ultimate adjustability, while a nervous passenger would feel happier in the Mini. The extra grunt of the 172 makes it a more frantic ride, of course. The Cooper's chassis is never stressed quite as highly, yet back-to-back there's very little difference in their cross-country pace.

Overall, the Cooper S is the more appealing car. Less exciting and edgy, certainly, but much more attractive in so many ways and blessed with more than enough evoness.

The recently announced lightweight 172 Cup is perhaps Renault's admission that to compete with the Cooper S, the 172 needs to play to its considerable strengths, namely speed and agility. Expect a rematch this summer.