Wandering downtown Klosters, Switzerland, this past March while participating in the Masters World Cup cross country skiing, a strange shape emerged from the gloom. Circling slowly around it, the familiar Renault rhombus and a script “Wind” on the rear enlightened me. While Renault departed the North American market in 1988, I’m quite familiar with European-market Renaults, but had never seen one of these: the short-lived Renault Wind 2-seater roadster, inspired by a 2004 concept car.
I haven’t yet found production numbers, but it was on sale in the UK for only 18 months 2010-2012, and until 2013 on the Continent. While plenty of cars have memorable wind inspired names (Scirocco, Passat, Jetta, Mistral, Khamsim, Bora, Ghibli, Zephyr, Typhoon, etc.) plain old Wind did not blow anyone away. Several sources speculated that a more evocative name could have propelled sales.
The car rode on the Clio II platform, and was closely related to the Renault Twingo, as its stance and some of its detailing and parts give away.
After circling the Wind a few times, its friendly owner appeared. I asked what engine powered it and he answered, “Some little thing from Renault”. Not exactly a petrolhead, but he cheerfully opened and closed the roof for me. A bit of research reveals two choices, a 1.6 L naturally aspirated 133 hp, or a blown (turbo) 1.2 L 100 bhp; which are shared with the Twingo.
The Wind’s party trick is the clever roof mechanism, inspired by the 2005 Ferrari 575 Superamerica. Simpler than the multi-piece metal roofs of other convertibles, it also does not reduce trunk space when retracted. Opening or closing takes about 12 seconds after manually releasing or locking the roof to the header rail:
The roof mechanism was designed and patented by Leonardo Fioravanti, who also designed the Ferrari Daytona and 288 GTO, among others.
The opened roof keeps the car’s reasonable luggage space intact.
Swiss Post Bus next to Klosters train station
That encounter over, I still had to get around town. But no problem; to navigate around Klosters and Davos, you have large and small choices. The Post busses (MAN and Mercedes) run just as punctually as the trains. With convertible season slowly drawing to a close, I hope you enjoyed this wintry whiff of Wind.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1995 Renault Twingo – Renault’s Most Intelligent Small Car
Mentally I’ll always compare any retracting hardtop with the simplicity that was the Miata NC PRHT. Win #1 is they eliminate the need to open the entire rear deck or trunk, which had seemed to go past the VW Eos through the Lexus SC into the 3000 GT Spyder and all the way into the 50s as a preferred method. Win #2 was the two-piece design that really did fit where the standard Miata’s top fit – all prior trunk space was retained.
Good thing I was in the car market at the time. Bought the 2nd one I saw.
Congratulations on seeing one in the wild. I think I´ve seen two of them since they came out. It was a bit like seeing Elvis Presley though more memorable. One of them was in Dublin and the other somewhere on the edge of the Black Forest. I bet they are much more enjoyable than the received wisdom would have you believe.
A curious oddity; good catch. Looks a bit like a plump, tall and short Lotus Europa. Or something like that.
Oddly enoug there are two of those, both used as daily driver, in my neighborhood.
I think theynare ugly, but in a weirdly good way.
It’s a peculiar looking little beastie. That roof mechanism is s stroke of genius, but I have to wonder how it holds up in service. Many retractable tops don’t.
About that name: while there have been many cars named for gentle or strong air currents, the general term ‘wind’ is an unfortunate choice, in English, as we have these weird things called homonyms. Not to mention the odd unfortunate colloquial usage.
Yes, I totally get the idiom of ‘wind in your hair’, and from that point of view it’s a natural – but if you overtake one of these on the autoroute, are you passing Wind? Oops!
I take it that’s not the meaning Renault intended…
Wind is a simple name. What would have happened in Renault had chosen “Blow By?” “Air Apparent?” “Flighty?” We can go on.
Thanks for photographing this, and especially with the top in operation. This is a car I’d never heard of before.
Didn’t know these existed! Unusual name, better than Renault Fart I guess. Slightly odd looking, but also looks like it could be a load of fun.