I think it’s safe to say that here at Jalopnik, we’re very much in favor of the following: Twingos, drifting, rear engines, making cheap shitboxes even more fun, and being openly and unashamedly delighted by any or all of the following. As someone frequently thrilled by cheap shitboxes, I admit I feel a sort of kinship with Piotr, his little Renault Twingo, and his dream of making it a drift car.
The Twingo in question is a new one, a GT one, even, and unlike earlier Twingos, this one is a rear-engine/RWD vehicle, which should make it quite promising for drifting and all manner of other good-natured hoonery.
It should, but, sadly, it doesn’t. The reason it doesn’t is that Renault wants to sell these as safe and easy-to-drive useful little city cars, not crazy drifting micro-monsters, so they have all kinds of electronic stability and control systems in there to make the car safe and predictable, but, sadly kill all the fun.
Our pal Piotr knows this, of course, but like all of us, sees all the fun potential for the car—hell, those front wheels turn a full 45 degrees! That with RWD should make this thing better at cranking out donuts than Krispy Kreme when the neon HOT NOW sign is on.
So, to do this, Piotr takes the little Gaul to a tuner, who works all manner of magic, up to and including welding the diff, to make the car into something that finally lives up to its potential, and it all starts with a little switch that kills every computerized buzzkill on the car.
Here, just watch:
The best part is how thrilled Piotr is with it all. It’ll make you feel a bit better about everything.
Well, everything unless you’re American and you remember that you can’t get these here. And everything else sucks.
Just watch the happy dude drift.
(thanks, Laurens!)