Well, who'd have thought it?
Remember that mysterious teaser image which Renault released the other day? Well, it turns out that what the image showed was a quasi-Formula One car based upon the Renault Twizy.
What Renault has done is taken one of its standard Twizys and garnished it with the same F1 KERS system which comes fitted to Sebastian Vettel's Formula One car. The system weighs 30kg and is fitted where the passenger seat would go in the standard Twizy. As such, like a Formula One car, the Twizy is a strict single-seater.
The system recovers energy which would normally be lost under braking and uses it to charge the battery. This means that under normal running, the Twizy F1 produces the same 17bhp as the standard car, but when the KERS is activated, this figure shoots up to 97bhp.
97bhp might not sound much, but remember, the Twizy weighs just 564kg, giving a power-to-weight ratio of 172bhp per tonne -- almost as much as a Megane RS.
Renault also claims that the Twizy F1 can match the Megane's 0-62mph time of 6.0 seconds and hit a top speed of 68mph, 15mph more than the standard car.
On the outside, the Twizy F1 is equipped with a front splitter, side-pods, a rear wing and a diffuser. Renault has even given the car an F1-style rain light.
There are no plans to put the Renault Twizy F1 into production, but the car will be making several public appearances later this year, including performing a run up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this June.
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