The Clio Cup is one of the cheapest cars we've had on our fleet (yes, we are spoilt) but by no means was it the poor relation. Within the first month of its arrival, the Cup had taken part in two trackdays, our Car of the Year extravaganza, and a hot hatch group test. Few of us honestly thought it would be able to withstand this sort of punishment, let alone keep soaking it up every month for the next year.

I had already had the privilege of running the original Sport 172 (dare I say still the better looking of the pair) a few years back, so I received the Cup with outstretched arms and a pair of rose-tinted glasses. The latter soon became opaque when a harsh knocking emerged from the steering and I thought the rack had come adrift. A quick trip to the local dealer, who replaced a rotary switch, solved the problem.

At the same time the dealer cured a really irritating yellow airbag warning light from coming on by fixing a loose connection under the passenger seat. Unfortunately, confirmed by all the e-mails we've received, these sort of niggling problems don't appear to be unique to our car.

After being brutally abused by a 'racing driver' on a trackday, the Cup needed to be re-shod. We decided to replace the ContiSportContacts with Michelin Pilots. The Pilots were far quieter on the road, but less tolerant of hard driving, as shown on a subsequent trackday when some of the tread blocks started to tear apart.

When the Cup was used for passenger rides on a couple of evoactive events it was fun watching the before and after effects on the passengers. Obviously, when faced with the choice of being blatted around Snetterton in a Radical or taken in the Cup, people generally opted for the former. But those who took the chance of some je ne sais quoi were rewarded beyond their expectations.

The Cup wasn't purely a track toy. It racked up thousands of miles lugging my camera gear around Britain and averaged 34.1mpg in the process. The huge weight of gear in the boot and the lack of ABS didn't really hamper the Cup's performance; in fact, I was surprised how quickly you re-acquire the skills of cadence braking.

But while I appreciate the theory of omitting ABS to create a purer track car, the harsh reality of British winters means I'd prefer to have the reassurance of this electronic guardian. Same goes for the lack of air-con; yes it saves weight, but this summer would have been so much more bearable with some refrigerated air in the cabin.

If the absence of air-con in the Cup (and a few irritating faults) is all I can find to moan about, then you've probably sussed that I didn't want to let it go. As the 1800 or so people who'll buy a Clio Cup this year will concur, it's a cracking little car.