Renault plans affordable rear-wheel-drive sports car

Renault could have a rear-wheel-drive sports car within its line-up by 2014, providing chairman Laurens van den Acker gets his way.

Van den Acker said he not only thinks Renault should be building a compact, affordable sports car, but also that the chance to make it lies in Renault�s planned alliances.

�Any car maker with a product range as broad as ours should have room for an affordable sports car,� van den Acker said. �The challenge to design a great driver�s car is very exciting. It won�t be easy to make a strong business case, but through Renault�s global alliances, I believe it will be possible.�

Insiders within Renault have confessed that numerous projects have been abandoned to produce a new �Renault Alpine� sports car since 2000. The latest proposal that took its design cues of the 2006 Nepta concept was negated in 2007.

As well-placed internal source suggested that the car considered is a compact, affordable coup�, a nearer counterpart for the Alpine A110 �Berlinette�.

Most current platforms Renault-Nissan now have would force Renault to place the engine up-front, however, if Renault were to confer with their new alliance partner Daimler for admission to the next Smart Fortwo�s rear-engined platform, a more faithful successor for the four-cylinder A110 might be possible along the lines of the last Smart Roadster Coup�.