1997 Renault Sport Spider - Sport Spider

The 722nd Sport Spider built

One of only 328 finished in Sirtaki Sport Blue

One of only 99 Spiders delivered new to Austria

53,500 kilometres of pure driving pleasure on the clock

In an effort to sharpen the brand’s sporting profile, Renault came up with the idea of a one-make racing series to run as part of the Formula 1 support programme. The result was the Sport Spider, unveiled in Geneva in 1995 in road-going form as well. What sounded civilised was, in fact, pretty much the opposite. Built by Alpine in Dieppe, the little two-seater dispensed with almost everything that usually makes motoring comfortable. A roof? Not a chance. Side windows? Not provided. The first examples did not even have a windscreen, making do with little more than a wind deflector. What they did have was very little weight and a great deal of fresh air.

At its core was a bonded aluminium chassis clothed in a composite body. Behind the two seats sat the two-litre, 16-valve engine familiar from the Clio Williams, producing 150 bhp and coupled to a five-speed gearbox. That may sound modest today, but it had only 930 kilograms of car to deal with. The result was correspondingly immediate: no power steering, precious little sound insulation and the engine right behind your ears.

The chassis was equally serious. Double wishbones all round and firm suspension made it clear that Renault Sport had been thinking less about trips to the bakery and more about winding country roads and racing circuits. A dedicated one-make racing series only underlined the point.

Later, the Spider could be ordered with a proper windscreen and wiper, although that hardly made it sensible. Only around 1,700 examples were built by 1999, offered in just four colours: Pearl Sport Yellow, Sirtaki Sport Blue, Feria Sport Red and Titanium Grey.

Exactly 99 Spiders were delivered new to Austria, 22 of them in Sirtaki Sport Blue. And of those, just 20 had a full windscreen. This Spider is one of them. It was first registered in Vienna in 1997 by its original owner, who lived in the city’s third district. For more than ten years now, it has provided its current owner with instant gratification whenever the urge has struck. But as age tends to bring a little more reason with it, one final summer together is now being followed by a reluctant farewell.

The Spider delivers motoring in its purest form, without electronic helpers or other modern distractions. It is therefore pretty much the opposite of what Renault normally does particularly well: it is hardly practical and even less comfortable. Instead, it is light, direct and gloriously uncompromising. Sometimes less really is more car.

A word of warning, though: a Spider can be seriously addictive.