First Drive: Renault Twizy, the fastest car in Monaco
When inflation is off the scale, be unique
Each year Top Marques shuts down the cash-flooded Monaco. It quite literally grinds the traffic to a halt, as it is swarmed by tuning creations that make your eyes and ears bleed. Police finning everything flashy, curbs higher than the VW diesel-gate shit-pile, tight corners, and small parking garages make one wonder why you'd want to drive there in the first place. All the more reason for me to rent the Renault Twizy when there, a small EV.
What happens when a country the size of your backyard is flooded by 9000 BMWs driven by Albanians? The police cashes big time. They get conditioned by it in fact, ignoring all the other cars because of it. And yes, that means everything else get to enjoy a form of anonymous anarchy. The Renault Twizy included.
Power from the electric engine comes in at 17 horsepower, more than enough to dart through all the traffic jams. Something you want, you don't want to look at some of the creations there for too long. Overtaking a Brabus S850? No problem. Overtaking a Koenigsegg Agera R? All done with a gentle zoom and no shifting required, even while offering a steering-feel these cars won't come close to. Why? Because it's all muscles rotating the 185 front tyres, giving the true feeling of the road. Which can be scary when doing 85 KPH down a mountain road while trying to follow a friend in his Audi R8.
I'll have to admit that the 80 kilometer real-world range was the scariest thing about the Renault Twizy. The hotel not having space to charge made that worse. Good thing all the public parking garages were equipped with free charging spots, making them feel like the garages were free due to the fresh range that came along with it. It gave enough battery juice to lap the F1 circuit quicker than all the government-funding, tuned cars around. I seriously managed two laps while some cars didn't move more than 200 meters due to all the Albanian BMW M cars.
Get it why this little car, with its folding wing-doors, is the quickest thing in Monaco? It could use twice the range and power though, but I think I'd kill myself with it then. I would, especially with it having nearly no braking power despite the 4 rotors.
