Cars with History: the Renault Twingo turns 20

In 1989 Renault set out an ambitious project: its project director, Yves Dubreil, was tasked with a small car that would be compact, practical, economical and comfortable, but that would not be a direct rival to the Clio. The aim was to replace the redundant and the ordinary in a car with unique features, such as a sliding rear seat to increase interior capacity, “bed seats” or the digital instrument cluster placed in the centre of the dashboard.

At its launch in 1993 it could not be said that the Twingo offered a very varied configuration: it had only a 1.2-litre, 55 hp engine, four colours and a single interior trim option, which at least offered electric windows.

The Twingo Easy arrived in 1994 with one of the first semi-automatic gearboxes on the market with clutch control, as well as the Twingo Wind, one of the only cars in this segment to come with air conditioning. In 2000 a new engine was added to the range, the 1.2-litre, 16-valve unit producing 75 hp.

Not many people know that the design of the Renault Twingo was not strictly an idea of the designers at Régie. When preliminary work on the project began, the design of a Polish car called the Beskid was “borrowed”, originally designed by FSM (Fabryka Samochodow Malolitrazowych), which years later would become Fiat Poland. FSM made the mistake of not renewing the ownership licences for the Beskid in time, so Renault was easily able to get hold of its sketches.

In 2007 the Twingo II appeared on the market, designed on the basis of the Renault Clio II. In general the Twingo has seen few changes up to the present day, adapting to the times. The latest redesign was presented in 2011 and is the one sold today; the Twingo, a novel and fun car born at a time when “corporate image” did not exist, has now had to adapt. For better or for worse?