You what? A battery-powered car that makes a Dinky toy look grown-up, a car that maxes out at 50mph - how could that possibly rank as a PistonHeads hero?
You may well conclude I've inhaled too many lead-acid fumes in nominating the slowest car on the planet for PH laurels.
But am I so wrong for falling for the Renault Twizy's charms? Ever since attending the press launch on Ibiza, I've been besotted with this utterly unique mode of transport.
Yes, I know sunny Ibiza is a very different proposition to a damp rush-hour on the North Circular, but I'm not proposing the Twizy as an everyday car. Treated as a pure fun car, it's brilliant - and I'd even argue it has PH cred, too.
We're not quite at this stage yet...
Let's not overlook the fact that the Twizy boasts a great chassis. 'Great'? Yup. Remember, it was engineered by the same RenaultSport bods who brought you the Clio 200 and Mégane 265.
Most of the Twizy's weight (a mere 450kg of it) sits extremely low down. The suspension is ultra-firm, due to very short springs and beefy anti-roll bars, and it there's almost zero body roll. As a result, the Twizy feels totally secure at speed through corners, helped by fast-acting and responsive steering.
Add in a that single-seater central driving position, traffic-gap-leaping compactness and a throwaway price and you have a little cracker, say I.
Renaultsport tuned chassis y'know
All of which led me to ponder: can you turn the Twizy into something that lives up to its RenaultSport DNA? It's led me on a path of discovery, to the revelation that there's a whole world of Twizy tuning out there.
Who can forget that Renault engineers built the utterly bonkers Twizy F1, with its 97hp motor?
In its path, others have followed. For instance, German Renault tuner Elia offers an ECUtuning kit (498 euros) that boosts torque from 41 lb ft to 52 lb ft, and lifts the top speed marginally. A PHer has even had an Elia chip fitted...
You can get even more, er, 'extreme'. Someone in Norway is offering a rechip to liberate 59 lb ft and a motorway limit-busting 71mph. The cost is about £300 if you mail your ECU over to him, or you can buy a kit to tune the car yourself (a five-minute job, it's claimed) for around £750. According to this video, 0-60mph in the tuned Twiz' takes around 36 seconds - yes, I know, a snail would get there quicker, but a 0-30mph time of around five seconds is pretty zingy in town.
And they're getting cheaper...
Twizys are now starting to hit bargain prices. What other two year-old car can you buy with almost zero mileage for under £3,000? I've seen them offered for under £3K, although the cheapest one currently in the
PH classifieds
is £3,982. Don't forget to factor in Renault's battery hire, though, which currently costs from £30 a month.
Has anyone here done anything serious with a Twizy? Some very bad part of my brain is toying with a Hayabusa engine swap. Now that would let you exploit the chassis...
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