Other test:
First is the gearbox. There are only five speeds, and no graphic to show you where reverse is, but these aren’t the problem. It is simply a nightmare of a ‘box. Graunchy and gnashy just working up or down through the ratios, with a useless feel which tells you nothing about which ratio you’re in at the moment. It’s geared short too, 120km/h in top equalling a very active 4000rpm on the tacho. It is horrible to use.
And yet you have to be working it a lot, because the naturally-aspirated 1.6 suffers from a trait similar to what broke the Clio RS for us. It
hasn’t been mapped for our altitude, which exacerbates the total lack of torque below 4000rpm and can make for jerky, coughy progress if the highway you’re travelling on takes on any incline at all.
Rev the socks off the thing, right round to the 6750rpm power peak and into the 7K blue line, and it gets a tad more convincing, although it could never be called truly rapid. It makes a sporty little growl from the single tailpipe though which is nice, although this has the side effect of convincing you you’re driving fast when pushing, even though a glance at the digital speedo will tell you otherwise. This car feels fast, but isn’t, especially here at Reef altitude.
And beneath the rorty exhaust note, the motor itself makes terrible noises, and delivers very inconsistent power. Below 4000 rpm it’s flat, listless, lifeless, but beyond that point it pulls, then tapers off, then splutters a little bit, and then starts pulling again at around 5500rpm. But even though the car wills you to chase these high revs, the engine doesn’t sound like it’s enjoying the experience. The last 1000rpm of the rev range is punctuated by some pretty horrifying sounds of mechanical pain.
It makes chasing the 201km/h top speed a fraught process, because not only does the engine sound like it could grenade at any time, it’s very obviously fighting a losing battle with air resistance at that point and acceleration is slooooowww. In fact, on public highways, I couldn’t get the space to top 178km/h on the speedo – 201 would take a very, very long runway somewhere with, preferably, no atmosphere to generate drag.
So, here you have a car which is big on the sensations and trappings of speed, but not so big on the actual speed itself thanks to less than convincing mechanicals. The chassis is a real little gem, sure, but that’s really where the performance aspect of this car ends.
Still, for a car so big on emotional content, the worrying Gordini association actually sits very well in the end. Although these sorts of visual addenda would be an utterly shameless pastiche of a legendary brand on say an Auris, on the Twingo it adds yet another layer of raw desirability to what is already a very cool, sexy little car.
