It wasn’t the most sensible or logical thing I’ve ever done, entering my Renault 5 long-termer in the Watergate Bay Sprint, a Cornish motorsport event on a closed public road between Newquay and Watergate Bay, about a month ago.
I mean, how well could a brand-new, bog-standard baby EV be expected to do in a proper, Motorsport UK-approved competitive event against 70-odd conventional cars, many of them developed over years for this very purpose?
Three reasons. First, this is the big-battery, 148bhp version. Its acceleration off the mark is much more impressive than that of a similar-power petrol car, because its generous maximum torque of 181lb ft is available from step-off.
As well as being invaluable in the traffic, such grunt is ideal for rapid start-line departures and for slingshotting you off start lines and out of slow corners and chicanes (of which Watergate Bay’s 930-yard course has three).
Second, I reckoned the Renault’s small size would help in a September sprint when the weather might be iffy (it was). And third, I figured the Pop Yellow colour would look great in photos (it did).
Debacles aren’t often fun, but this event was one of the exceptions. The weather – rain and high winds – combined to make our clifftop perch about as exposed as it could be.
Extreme wet, mud on the track and an early competitor’s accident (including a very big oil spill) combined to limit our number of runs to three (one practice, two timed) for the day, instead of the half dozen we had hoped for. Yet the car was terrific.
It ran a best time of 39 seconds – nothing special but no disgrace. It felt safe and quick, with positive steering and total wet-road stability. Even with rivers of water running down the middle of the track, I felt it could easily have used more power.
