Watch - Renaultsport R.S. 01, 550hp GT-R engine and Le Mans levels of downforce
Reanult's aggressive World Series racer has no road-car equivalent - and it feels like no road car to drive...
The Renaultsport R.S. 01 is a difficult car to pigeonhole. On the one hand, at €290,000 it costs about the same as a GT3-spec racing car, but it’s several seconds a lap quicker than a McLaren 650S or Audi R8 GT3. It’s built around a carbonfibre monocoque with inboard suspension and enormous aerodynamic downforce, which sort of makes it a mini Le Mans prototype.
It’s powered by a 550bhp Nissan GT-R engine, driving the rear wheels through a sequential gearbox. At top speed the front slipper, huge rear wing and diffuser generate 1200kg, which means – in theory at least – the 1150kg R.S. 01 could drive along the ceiling of a tunnel…if you could find a driver mad enough.
>Read our Renaultsport Megane 275 Trophy review
Renaultsport invited a group of journalists to drive the car at Jerez. We each got a couple of six-lap session, which was just about enough to get a taste of the car. To somebody more used to driving fast road cars, the R.S. 01 was utterly breathtaking.
Watch the video above for the full experience - and let us know what you think of the car in the comments section below.
