Renault Spider Race Car

Renault Sport Spider

There were 99 Spider race cars built. The race cars all carry the notation Spider Circuit on the chassis plate, and the number 099XX, where XX represents the chassis number of that car. The race car I use is chassis number 09937, hence it is chassis number 37.

All the race cars were left hand drive. They first raced in a one make series in the UK and in Europe in 1996. During that season they ran a regular H pattern gearbox. The gearbox was upgraded for the following season to a Sadev six speed sequential unit. The original prototype race car was dark blue and silver, and had a H pattern gearbox, it also had a slightly different rollcage to the "production" race cars. These race cars had the rollcages strengthened following a car rolling at Mallory Park in the UK and the cage failing. All roll cages were returned to Renault and modified. The only car known to exist with an original unmodified roll cage is the original prototype, which is chassis number 09901 known affectionately as "Number 1". Number 1 is currently being rebuilt and will hopefully be coming to some shows in 2011.

OK, back to the race cars. There were in effect two versions of the race car. The Spider Cup car and the Spider Trophy car. The Spider Cup raced in the UK and the Spider Trophy in Europe. The main difference initially between the two was a smaller sliencer on the Spider Trophy, as the European series was allowed to run at a higher noise limit than the UK Cup cars. The cars were also developed differently whilst the one make series took place. In the UK the shock absorbers were upgraded from the original Bilstein units like on the road car to full Penske race dampers. This upgrade didn't happen in the European race Spiders.

After the first season of racing with a manual H pattern gearbox an upgrade to a Sadev 6 speed sequential gearbox was made available. This offered a flat shift system for faster changes up the box without the clutch being used.

(to be continued).

The car above is Chassis Number 1, an original prototype

For the real spider fanatics note the different roll cage