Renault Wind 2010

Renault Wind - cute looks, unfortunate name

07 February 2010

By Tim Pollard

Renault will unveil the new Wind roadster at the 2010 Geneva motor show. Not to be confused with the Wind concept car introduced at the same show six year earlier, this Wind is a production car and has been made possible by using the hardware from the Twingo/Clio duo.

The French call it a 'coupé-roadster', enabled by its folding metal hard top. But unlike other CCs, the new Renault Wind has a simple roof that flops 180deg into the loadbay – the video to this story can be seen here and it demonstrates the simple operation in action; going topless takes just 12 seconds from twisting the manual latch to the electric motors finishing their work.

Compact Convertible

The Wind is certainly quite diddy. Just 3830mm long, in fact, putting it slap bang in Mini Cabriolet territory.

That folding roof is an elegant engineering solution. At first glance, it looks like the system on the Ferrari 575 Superamerica, but closer inspection reveals the Wind's mechanism to be cleverer. If you open the boot with the roof down, the rear deck hinges up with the stowed roof in tow. Nifty.

The Wind is front-wheel drive with a choice of two engines and five-speed gearboxes: 1.2 turbo, 1.6 from the Clio Renaultsport.

Why the Renault Wind is a two-seater

Despite those Twingo underpinnings, the Wind is a pure two-seater. That leaves enough space for 270 litres of luggage space, irrespective of the roof position. Although we haven't yet seen interior photos of the Wind, the dash has a unique layout, says Renault.

No word yet on whether the Wind would even be considered for the GCC market.

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