Competition vehicle Unregistered

- Rare Trophy version of the Renault Spider

- An iconic competition car of its time

- Rare ‘Harlequin’ livery

- No reserve

When it was presented in 1995 at the Geneva Motor Show, the Renault Spider looked like a UFO: truly an object from somewhere else, in comparison with the manufacturer’s much more conventional range, and even with Alpine, which at the time was building the A610, a kind of up-market version of the A110 berlinette. “Our aim was to create the sports car for the year 2000, light, open to the elements, basic in the sense of a return to first principles, and completely focused on the pleasure of driving”, explained Patrick Le Quément, Senior VP of Quality and Corporate Design at Renault.

 

Built using a tubular aluminium structure designed in collaboration with Fior Technology, the Spider had a rear-mid engine taken from the Mégane Coupé 16V and transverse-axis double-wishbone suspension, making it very close to a racing car. With its plastic composite bodywork, the car was assembled by hand in the Alpine factory at Dieppe, at a rate of approximately four cars per day.

It was not long before the idea of a version destined purely for motorsport took shape in the minds of those responsible for the project, giving rise to a single-make race series on the lines of the Coupe d'Europe R5 Turbo or the Clio Cup: the Spider Trophy. The championship was open to 30 or so amateur and professional racing drivers (among them Franck Lagorce) and the cars competing in it were modified Spiders, with a strengthened roll bar and a 180bhp engine from the Clio Williams.

The car in the collection is one of some 90 examples built and was used for demonstrations. It has a ‘Harlequin’ livery, a theme chosen by Renault’s design department which was applied to several cars for promotional purposes. The car is incomplete and is sold without an engine or gearbox, but with a set of various parts; it represents a good basis for a display car or to rebuild as an authentic Trophy model.