Sleepers are just cool. They combine sedate styling with raucous performance and tend to delight car enthusiasts of every age. In this case, the K20 Honda engine swapped into this Renault Twingo city car is far from the only reason it might be the ultimate sleeper.
Just as is the case in many modern cars, it’s the sum of this absurd vehicle’s parts that makes it so great, and those parts include a Koala stuffie in the rear seat that bravely holds onto a fire extinguisher in case things go awry. Recently, Nurburgring aficionado Misha Charoudin had a chance to get better acquainted with the sum of these parts, and he graciously filmed the encounter.
That’s right, we’re talking about a 500+ horsepower Renault Twingo blasting around the Green Hell. Where else will you find Nurburgring content that includes the AMG One setting a wild record there before we show you a Twingo that sounds sketchy but is actually very impressive?
Just take a long gander at this silver beast. Save for the performance tires it’s not giving away any of its secrets. Even the steel wheels make it look even more pedestrian than some stock Twingos might. For those unaffiliated with the normal version of this car, it was meant to be little more than a Car of the People.
Renault wanted the car to be fun and flexible. The rear seats could fold forward and basically stow away directly behind the front seats. All four seats could recline and create a sort of bed-like situation too. Twingo owners reported fuel economy well above 30 mpg too. Back in the mid 1990s that was great considering just how spacious this car was inside. All of this (and especially the fold-flat seats if you’re being literal) makes it a great candidate for a fun sleeper project.
Anybody (well not literally anybody) can throw a high horsepower engine into a car it’s not meant for. What makes a good sleeper great is the ability to control that power, manage the performance, and end up with a vehicle that is balanced enough to enjoy.
In the same way that countless automakers test their cars on the Nurburgring, Charoudin tests cars of all sorts there on his YouTube channel but few are as nutty-sounding as this Twingo. Originally a car with roughly 65 horsepower, it’s now making more than you’ll get in a new C8 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
As a reminder, the K20 originally arrived in cars such as the Honda Civic Type R. In naturally aspirated form it made around 212 horsepower. Since that time, tuners and builders have found that it’s an incredibly robust engine, capable of delivering the kind of power we see here thanks to a little boost. In this case, that extra pressure comes from a GT3076 turbo. Power goes to the front wheels only via a six-speed manual gearbox.
The Twingo builder, Ed Ouard, wanted to be sure that the finished car was up for just about anything so he’s made some other significant upgrades. That includes four-piston Wilwood calipers on the stock 14-inch brake discs. The tires are Nankang NS-2Rs built specifically for this kind of duty [tires built for 500 HP to the front wheels ?!] and BC Racing coilovers manage the suspension. He’s also added a water sprayer for the intercooler to keep temps down and the engine safe on especially hot days.
In addition, the video below shows how he has gauges to monitor engine vitals tucked away throughout the cabin. They lie behind vents that pop out, in the glove compartment, and even in the center console. The exhaust is variable between the stock unit and a cutout about halfway back of the body.
What does all of this add up to? A car that Charoudin has no trouble thrashing on the Nurburgring. For roughly seven whole minutes the film he created shows him bombing around the track as though it were his own personal play place. He’s confident enough in it too that he doesn’t have a helmet on.
Charoudin reaches triple-digit speeds over and over again, seems to have no issue with the chassis dynamics and even gets a few point-bys from what look like sincerely quick performance cars. At one point he hits the rev limited in fifth gear at 118 mph. Ouard, calmly chilling out in the passenger seat reminds Misha that there is a sixth gear to play with. “I’m afraid of sixth gear,” he replies.
Charoudin concludes the lap with a review noting that there are a few areas where the car could improve. The tires were getting hot, the chassis was prone to understeer at the limit (shocking I know), and the engine was a little warmer than normal near the end of the lap (no surprise since that cooling opening up front doesn’t look to have changed much from the 65hp car).
Nevertheless, the entire video ends up full of high revs, exhaust pops, speed, and laughs. That’s one of the most important parts of any build like this. If it’s not putting a smile on the face of those who get to experience it then maybe it’s missed the boat.
Is this the ultimate sleeper? If it’s not it must have some wild competition. This Twingo doesn’t look fast from any exterior or interior angle. The only way one would know something is different is to look under the hood. Not only is the car fast but it’s controllable at speed, too, thanks to all the additional upgrades beyond the engine. Finally, it’s actually fun and playful and a bit silly. Seems perfect to me.
@misha.charoudin4 500+ hp K20 Turbo Twingo From Hell! Nürburgring #fyp #foryou #viral #new #car
Images: Screenshots from Misha Charoudin (YouTube) unless otherwise stated
When the Twingo got the updated engine around 1998, and wasn’t stuck with the old noisy Cleon Fonte from the sixties anymore, it wasn’t slow: I did 100 mph in mine once. One saturday trying to keep up with one of my car friends’ old 911 I found out that it did actually had a rev limiter…
But I’m sure this one IS a lot of fun 😀
I’m sure it’s a lot of fun, but no buckets, no harness, no rollcage and 500+ hp in this paper tissue box of a car is beyond my level of imagination. I do admire the original Twingo though.
Yeah that’s a sweet build but I agree if you’re gonna run it at Nurburgring you need some better safety equipment.
I think safety went out the window when the guy said “let’s cram 500hp in a shoebox”
Surely this was supposed to mean something to the effect of ‘the stock rotors that would have been behind the 14″ wheels’? No way a cheap early ’90s hatchback had 14″ front rotors.
True that. It looks like the base Twingo has 10 inch rotors and they had one model with 11 inch.
The cheerful interior looked quite inviting, but I wouldn’t characterize the seats as “lay flat” upon viewing the photo. Sorta flatfish is as far as I would go (this “criticism” is of the basic car, not the hot rod). The limitations of FWD are obvious when you hear the wheelspin on 2nd and 3rd gear, but it’s happy puppy nature is charming. Just gotta be aware that it can bite.
If you’re 19 and have no other place to rendezvous with your partner, it’s flat enough 🙂
I’m sure the interior was thoroughly tested in all positions before being approved for production 🙂
Beats a chevette
Nothing would bring joy like watching this thing gap scat packs and likely even hellcats at the drag strip. The most insecure dude-bro owners getting walked away from by a smiley happy little French hatchback is the sort of thing I would pay for.
I dunno, I bet its impossible to drag race launch. But it would freeway roll away from those dude-bros for sure ( and I say this as someone who would happily daily drive such a dude-bro-mobile as a Scat Pack or Hellcat).
I don’t doubt that too much, but it could certainly be setup to do it. The number of fast FWD civics out there is nothing to sneeze at. I too would absolutely happily drive any V8 challenger or charger, but the ones who do drive them and race on the streets are the more toxic ones that deserve to be shown up by a happy egg. Also if I did own a hellcat and this spicy little blob of French joy were to beat me I’d buy the owner a beer at least.