Renault Twin'Run points to next Twingo

This new French concept is a crazy mid-engined little beastie, but the body is another clear pointer to the way the Twingo will look next year.

It's called the Twin'Run concept and it hot-lapped the F1 course last weekend during the run-up to the Monaco Grand Prix, where Renault-powered Red Bulls finished - ironically - second and third behind a Mercedes-Benz.

The Twin'Run is the second Twingo teaser and comes hot on the heels of the Twin'Z, as Renault shows the twin-edged potential of the new Twingo. "The Twin'Z took an environmental focus and this is the sporty one," says Renault Australia spokesperson, Emilie Ambrosy.

"It actually runs. It was driven at Monaco by Carlos Tavares, who is the chief operating officer of Renault." "The point of the car is to show what a future generation of the Twingo might look like, but also to pay homage to some icons from the past." Those cars are the pocket-rocket Renault R5 Turbo that won the Monte Carlo Rally and the Clio V6 racer.

So the Twin'Run has a Nissan V6 engine - picked up through the Renault-Nissan Alliance - where the back seat and boot would normally live, turning the rear wheels through a six-speed racing gearbox. The car can zap to 100km/h in 4.5 seconds with a top speed of 250km/h.

Because it's a concept, and focussed on racing, it has a full motorsport cabin and bodywork formed from carbon composites. But rip off the rear wing and driving pods to reveal the basic body shape and you get a good look at the Twingo thinking.

“Twin’Run is a cocktail of energy, passion and athleticism, rekindling the memory of emblematic Renault racing cars,” says Laurens van den Acker, head of design at Renault. “Following its twin, Twin’Z, a stylish urban concept car, Twin’Run shows that personalisation is a core strategy at Renault.”

But there is a more important consideration for Australia, and the potential for Twingo sales in 2014 and beyond. "It has to be the right car, with the right specification, at the right price," Ambrosy emphasises once again.

She also hints that the Twin'Run could come to Australia, perhaps as part of Renault's involvement in next year's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne,. "Of course, we would love to get the Twin'Run to Australia. It's a great looking thing and it sounds like fun. But we'll see if that happens," she says.