1997 Renault Spider

The Renault Sport Spider, or project W94 as it was codenamed, debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 1995 and was launched the year after, when the Williams Renault F1 team was enjoying great success with it's Adrian Newey designed cars. Understandably, Renault's plan was clearly to capitalise on this motorsport 'Moment in the Sunshine" with a multi-national One Make Championship. Another encouraging factor was the sports car boom of the mid-90s, most visible in the number of Lotus Elise Mk.1s pouring out of the factory. Ultimately, although not as successful as they had hoped with only 1,685 Sport Spiders being built, they did manage to create a fabulous little driver's car.

Powered by the 150bhp, 16v four cylinder engine first seen in the Renault Clio Williams, and latterly in the original Megane 16v Coupé, and given its relatively light weight, the Sport Spider turned out to be a positive "Road Rocket" with 60 mph. arriving in 6.9 seconds on its way to a maximum of 134mph. Take a seat behind the wheel and you instantly know that this car means business; quite simply it's more race car than road car. A single aluminium bar dominates the dashboard with only three dials set into a central pod. A speedometer was not part of the package and a rev counter, oil and water pressure gauges were all that were deemed necessary. To complete the sports car feel, there are body-hugging Recaro bucket seats, a leather- trimmed steering wheel and adjustable pedals to enable the driver to achieve the absolute optimum driving position. The windows meanwhile, pivot up to open, which is arguably practical and certainly distinctive. The Renault Spider championships ran for several years as a support series to larger championships such as British Touring Cars and groomed many fine racing drivers, including the hard-charging Jason Plato.

Presented here is a superb Spider finished in Pearl Yellow over Metallic Grey, sporting Recaro buckets seats and a black Alcantara Sparco steering wheel. This car is fitted with Bilstein Dampers, 18" alloys clad in Toyo tyres and the engine has an uprated Piper Camshaft.The car has covered a mere 14,470 miles in the hands of its 3 owners and the service book is stamped as follows:

Specialist Date MileageRenault Birmingham 17.7.97 1,764Radbourne Racing 8.7.98 5,460P.J. Autos 27.6.00 6,408Renault (Tates, Brighton) 13.11.06 7,860

At some stage in its life, we believe that this car has also been through the workshop of respected Renault tuning specialists K-Tec Racing, for fast road/race preparation, although we have no paperwork to corroborate this story. Included in the sale is a set of its original road wheels, its original steering wheel, a tonneau cover and a hood. The service book and drivers manuals are also present.Supplied with a fresh MoT until April 2017 and road registered, bearing the registration "P503 MOA', this nimble Spider is ready to be enjoyed on the road, or alternatively on a track day, where we feel it wouldn't embarrass or disappoint.