A fresh report out of Europe suggests that the next-generation Clio RS will be powered by a version of the 1,8-litre engine also used in the Mégane RS and Alpine A110.
The fifth-generation Clio hatchback is expected to be revealed at the Paris Motor Show later in 2018, with the RS version to follow.
According to Caradisiac, Philippe Brunet, who holds the position of Alliance senior vice president for powertrain and EV engineering, confirmed to L’Automobile Magazine that the next-gen version of the B-segment hot hatch would gain the turbocharged 1,8-litre four-cylinder engine.
In the Mégane RS, this twin-scroll turbocharged engine is tuned to deliver 205 kW, while the upcoming Trophy version will make 220 kW. But in the smaller Clio RS, the 1,8-litre four-pot will likely be detuned (to somewhere around 170 kW, if the Caradisiac report turns out to be accurate) to avoid it stepping on its big brother’s toes.
Of course, if Renault ever decided to build a limited-run, high-performance version of the next-generation Clio RS (remember the madcap Clio RS 16 concept?), this engine’s peak outputs could easily be hiked to the requisite levels.
