Renault’s Clio Renaultsport 197 is now available to pre-order exclusively to members of www.renaultsport.co.uk before its launch day on July 18.

Customers not subscribed to the renaultsport.co.uk website will be able to start pre-ordering on May 30.

The car is priced at £15,995 and comes with a 2.0-litre 197bhp engine. It is mated with a six-speed manual gearbox, has a top speed of 134mph and goes from 0-62mph in 6.9 seconds.

Renault said its sporty new hatch can achieve 31.7 mpg and churns out 209 g/km in carbon dioxide emissions.

Standard features include Renaultsport sports seats, adjustable Renaultsport leather steering wheel, dashboard with satin chrome instrument dial surrounds and interior door handles and drilled aluminium pedals.

Exterior features include an extended front spoiler, wider wheel arches to accommodate 17-inch Renaultsport alloy wheels and Continental tyres. Body-coloured electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors are also standard.

There are five colours available on new Clio Renaultsport 197, three metallic and two non-metallic. There are three new colours to the range, ultra red (non-metallic), deep black and albi blue (metallic illusion). The non-metallic racing blue and metallic illusion nimbus completes the colour choice.

The car also has air conditioning, height adjustable driver’s seat with lumbar adjustment, reach and rake adjustable steering wheel, electric windows with driver one touch control, cruise control, speed limiter, variable assisted power steering and 60:40 split folding rear seat all as standard.

The Renaultsport 197 has eight air bags as standard: driver and front passenger airbags, front lateral airbags, curtain airbags and anti-submarining airbags in the base of the front seat cushion.

ABS with EBD (electronic brake distribution), ESP, seatbelts with integrated pretensioners and load limiters, ISOFIX child seat mounting points on front passenger seat and outer rear seats with front passenger airbag deactivation also feature.

An insurance approved engine immobiliser (Thatcham category 2), insurance approved alarm system, (Thatcham category 1), remote central locking with deadlocking and RAID (Renault anti intruder device), which automatically locks the doors when travelling above 5mph, are all as standard.