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Renault Twingo: Small, sporty(ish), safe ... and it's a BACK-ENDER

It's cute, but a little anaemic

Engine in the back, oily bits under the floor

Now Renault is telling us exactly the opposite. The reason the Twingo has the oily bits under the floor of the boot is down to packaging. So what has changed?

It’s the law. Pedestrian impact regulations mean that as there has to be a certain amount of space between the top of the bonnet and the nasty hard engine bits, cars have to get more and more ... well, Cyrano.

So why not stick the entire car between the bonnet and the engine? One good reason is that if you’ve only made front-engined cars, it’s very expensive to do all the work to put the engine in the back. And this is where “Daimler” comes in.

Daimler, which we know as Mercedes, owns Smart – makers of the eponymous tiny city cars – having bought the company from Swatch. Smart builds rear-engined cars, so the new Twingo was developed in tandem with Daimler. We’ll see a very similar car wearing a Smart badge as the new Smart ForFour, but both will be built by Renault at Novo Mesto in Slovenia.

Renault Twingo engine by Simon Rockman

No engine in the front? Good job there's a spare in the boot

Putting the engine in the back has other implications. Renault keeps saying that it’s all about packaging and “not a mini 911”, but that’s probably so that they can use the words “Twingo” and “911” in the same sentence and hope that some of the supercar glamour will rub off. However, it also means that servicing is more awkward.

There is a hinge mechanism which lets the engine drop down 15 degrees, making it easier to get to from below. Servicing needs a four post lift and/or an inspection pit. Now that is indeed like a 911, but Renault is keen to dispel any fears of wayward handling. The weight distribution is 55 per cent to the back and 45 per cent to the front. Put a driver and passenger in and you are looking at 50:50. Typically a front-engined car is 70:30 to the nose./

There is electronic skid control to further prevent any tendency to make arse-first visits to hedges.

Renault Twingo engine by Simon Rockman

The less powerful 70hp engine has a bigger capacity but no turbo

There is also a danger that shopping in the back will get hot. This is mitigated by a very thick wad of padding between the engine cover and the contents of the boot, but the cover itself does get very hot. You open it with six thumb screws, but if the engine is hot you do so very carefully.

Renault Twingo by Simon Rockman

Now that will confuse the AA man, odd catches on the front open the bonnet

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