The M Developments team has brought three Renault Clio Cup cars into New Zealand in time for the start of the 2021-’22 Super Production series.
While the cars are new to New Zealand, all three are coming from the Central Europe Clio Cup Series, where they had good results in the 2020 series, with one taking the championship win, one finishing third and the last ending the season seventh in the championship.
Two have already been purchased to be used by local drivers, with the third still up for sale.
The cars were built by Renault Sport with 220hp Nissan 1.6 litre turbo engine and six-speed sequential gearbox.
“It’s great to have these cars potentially lining up on the Super Production grid this summer,” said category manager Lindsay Dodd.
“These are exactly the type of car that is being attracted to the series.”
One of the cars will make its first appearance in the Three-Hour Carter’s Tyre Service South Island Endurance Series driven by Ron Mackersy and Warren Good.
The car will then be taken over by Tim Mackersy for the start of the Super Production series in January.
“The beauty about running a factory car means that you know that they have been properly built and fully developed,” Ron Mackersy said.
“Most of the faults have been sorted, upgrades have been made and there shouldn’t be any surprises. The main thing is to stick to the maintenance schedule.
“Because of this, we have found in the past competing in the M Development VW Golf Cup cars, that we have finished 100% of our endurance races.”
The 2021-’22 season will get underway at Highlands Motorsport Park on January 14-16.