Your New Year’s Resolution Should Be Owning This Rear-Engined Renault Twingo

We’ve been thinking a lot lately about Renault hatches with their engines in the wrong place, a minor obsession kicked off by the news that the rear electric-motored 5 Turbo 3E is actually going to be an actual thing you can actually buy. Actually.

Say you want a Renault hatchback with an unusually mounted engine, though, but don’t have the inevitably massive money needed for the 3E or, for that matter, a used Clio V6 or original 5 Turbo. Well, you could always go for a rear-engined Twingo.

No, not the rear-engined third-gen Twingo that actually left the factory with the hot bit at the back. That, while a cute little thing, used its rear-engined-ness more for an ultra-tight turning circle than any sort of tail-happy 911-style antics.

We’re talking about this rear-engined Twingo, which we’ve found for sale on Car and Classic. As you can see, it’s based on the definitive Twingo – the froggy, front-drive first-gen that we were cruelly denied in Britain, which is why the absolute hero who converted this one brought it over from Portugal.

They then hacked it about to make it rear-engined and rear-wheel drive, in the process swapping out the original motor for the 1.2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder from a second-gen Twingo. That originally made 99bhp, but it’s been chipped so the seller now reckons it’s producing 118bhp.

Still not exactly stonking power then, but it’s the same amount as an original Lotus Elise, and we reckon this thing must be pretty close to that car in terms of weight too. After all, the original Twingo weighed under 800kg, and this one’s had its interior stripped out, rear seats ditched and fronts replaced with some lightweight buckets.

It’s also got a mahoosive central exhaust and drilled and grooved brake discs at both ends, plus that awesome bespoke bodykit, some lovely 16-inch Ronal turbofan alloys, and of course that livery that recalls the 5 Turbo Group B car.

And the asking price for all this homebrewed excellence? £7500. Assuming this has all been done properly – and there’s nothing to suggest it hasn’t – that has to be the cheapest way into a hot Renault with its engine behind the driver, even if it’s come not from the Renault factory, but the kind of brilliant individual who has a mad idea and then actually follows through with it. That, if nothing else, deserves a round of applause.