Renault Sport Clio

Peer back to the official Best Era Ever for hot hatches, the entire Eighties through to the early Nineties, and the original Golf GTi stood out as the big bang moment, the Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9 was the benchmark, the Lancia Integrale Evo was as exotic as they ever came and the Renault Clio Williams represented the evolutionary pinnacle.

Since then hot hatches have never been quite so raw, and hot Clios have never rated quite so far ahead of their competition. Until now, that is.

Like an aging boxer, the current fastest Clio - the 197 - has lost some of its sharpness of wit, adding weight and settling into a safer, more cosseting, ultimately blander existence. There is still time for a spectacular comeback however, and those engineers with Renaultsport stitched across the back of their corporate polo shirts have been doing all they can to make it happen. Step forwards, Clio Cup.

In the creation of this car, anything judged irrelevant to the essential makeup of a hot hatch has been junked. Gone are the regular Clio 197's electric mirrors, curtain airbags, keyless ignition and (relatively) upmarket dash plastics. Even the aircon has been ditched as a standard fit, not such an issue if last summer's washout sets any standard for the future. It's now offered as a £525 extra - 20kgs is the modest weight saving.

The purge continues. Cruise control has been thrown away, as has reach adjustment for the steering wheel - this driver still had no issue settling in just fine. Thankfully the final major cut has been reserved for the pricetag, with a useful £1,000 lopped from the Clio 197's £15,995 basic RRP.

There are excellent gains, too. Fitted as standard is the Cup chassis, previewed in last year's brashly stickered-up, limited edition Clio F1 Team R27 and a £400 option for the current Clio 197.

This includes red brake calipers (nice), anthracite-finished 17-inch alloys (great) and springs stiffened by 27 per cent front and 30 per cent rear, alongside dampers stiffened by 10 per cent all round, in combination dropping the ride height by 7mm (essential).

The Cup doesn't need a track day to prove its worth, even if it promises to dance around cars treble its price when presented with such a chance. There is a balance, a sense of directness and, remarkably, still a level of suppleness here that makes it feel born for slinging down a bump-strewn, sharply-curving British B-road.

The tight proportions and rev-hungry engine only add to its fitness for purpose, as does the precision of the six-speed gearbox and the steering. Expect the Cup to be fondly remembered as the moment when it all came together for the current-generation Clio.

A handful of further updates call for a mention. Darker-still 'Satin Black' Speedline alloys are £175 extra and set the Clio Cup further apart from the 197. I'd find it hard to resist taking them. Meanwhile I'd find it hard to resist taking a hacksaw to the £375 spoiler bolted above our demo car's tailgate. When you're having such a good time, no need to look like a knob-end in the process.

That leaves the deeply-winged Renaultsport Recaros also fitted here, pushing the price £850 further in the wrong direction; they compensate by being the most perfectly-sculpted front seats this side of an Audi RS4's.

And finally, the fifth and six gear ratios have been stretched in both the Clio 197 and the Cup, at last making motorways an acceptable option for stitching together every wildly twisting cross-country route you can seek out on the map.

Refining this down to a personal level, when I look back on the cars that I have enjoyed driving the most in my past year at Top Gear magazine - those that have given me that really feeling alive today sensation - three leap right out: the Porsche 911 GT3, the Golf GTI Edition 30 and now this, the Renaultsport Clio Cup.

By way of unfathomable coincidence, all were painted the exact same shade of white. Call it just one more welcome throwback to the Eighties.

Peter Grunert