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The Porsche 911 was name-checked as one of the models helping fuel Volkswagen Group’s growing order bank in western Europe at its recent half-year financial results.

A sports car now costing in excess of £100,000 even for a base rear-wheeldrive Carrera (just four years ago, it was a smidge over £80,000) may seem an odd model to call out for driving growth at the world’s second largest car maker, yet, 61 years after its introduction, the 911 is as crucial for Porsche as ever.

Almost one in six sold is still a 911, some 25,000 having found homes in the first half of 2025. That’s actually a small drop year-on-year but explained by a model changeover, and the order bank remains strong.

The 911 has outsold the combustion-engined Macan, Panamera, 718 Boxster/Cayman and Taycan, and only the Cayenne and electric Macan sit above it. In the UK, it’s only second to the Macan. Remarkable.

Necessary too, for the 911’s robustness is a rare bright spot for Porsche.

Oliver Blume, CEO of both the VW Group and Porsche (and you thought you were busy…) took questions on a pretty bleak present for Porsche ahead of its own results being published. There have been year-on-year declines in sales volumes, sales revenues, profi ts and operating margins, with the latter the scariest: Porsche’s margin is just 5.5%, down 65% year-on-year and akin to that of a moderately successful volume car maker. Given its price hike, you would expect the 911 to be doing plenty of heavy lifting within that overall margin too.

Blume, calm and measured, told me three things that are making the brand suffer: the collapse of the luxury market in China, import tariffs to the US and the slower than expected demand for EVs. The result has “put the business model of Porsche under pressure”.

Porsche has been hit more than most by tariffs in the US (all of its cars are imported to the US from Europe) and the Chinese market dynamic changes as “the US and China are by far the biggest markets for Porsche”.

In the case of China, Blume quoted a luxury market decline of 34% in 2024 and another 50% in the first half of this year. “Porsche lost a lot of volume,” he said – 28% so far in 2025, to be precise.

Porsche’s recovery plan includes investment in a major new model that extends beyond EVs and back towards combustion-engined cars in response to the EV slowdown. Alongside this is a huge cost saving programme that will save hundreds of millions of euros in costs and cut around 15% of its workforce by 2029.

Yet one thing won’t change: the 911. With such a strong order bank, expect the 911 to remain the shining light as Porsche looks to escape a turbulent period. 

It’s a curious thing with hot hatches – they’re much lusted after when they’re the cars of the moment and the best of their breed.

But when that moment has gone and the next superheated hot hatch arrives, they fade as fast as a tropical sun. They get used up until suddenly, there are hardly any left. And fewer still that you’d give drive-space to. 

The X85 generation RenaultSport Clio has yet to reach the decimation phase, but its X65 predecessor has despite this car being the hot hatch to have in its day. You’ll occasionally find a crisp Clio 182 with low-ish miles. But these are the exception - most have been thrashed, trashed or crashed.

But there signs that its successor may not quite go the same way. A tempting trip through the classifieds reveals several that have clearly been pampered, come with all the right bits and have a heap of life left in them. So perhaps the X85 Clio RenaultSport is going to buck the hot hatch trend, allowing a decent number of coveted and cared-for examples to survive. High prices potentially make it too expensive to track-day these machines to oblivion.

That said, a track is where you best experience the superb handling of this car, especially if it’s equipped with the coveted Cup option. Though if you’re shopping for an X85, you need to know that there were two ways to acquire this confection. In its most extreme form, the Cup option was not only about recalibrating the springs and dampers for still greater agility, but also about paring weight, specifically 20kgs-worth.

To make that gain, Renault deleted the air conditioning, keyless entry and curtain airbags, and installed the lower-rent dashboard of the most basic Renault Clio, complete with steering column adjustable for rake only. You could order the air conditioning and curtain airbags as options, but not the higher-grade dash, reach adjustment or keyless entry.

You paid £1000 less for this version – a refreshing contrast to Porsche, which will charge you (loads) more for an RS with less, but better still was that the Cup chassis could be ordered with standard car. In this form the Clio weighed only 1.6% more, making this the optimal choice. But if you’re shopping, you need to be sure of what you’re getting.

And what was so special about the Cup suspension? It wasn’t as if the standard car shortchanged in the gripping, turning, swerving and stopping departments. But those reworked dampers and springs tightened the Renault’s body control, deepened its athleticism and sharpened your impression of the tyres’ intimacies with the road below. And all without ruining the ride. The steering could still have weighted up more informatively when you got some boldness on in a bend, but the Clio Renaultsport Cup was unquestionably top of the pile, not least because of the lift-off, tuck-in liberties you could take with this wonderfully game chassis, and a revvy engine to goad you on.

It’s still hard to beat even now. One major reason for that is that its paddle-shift only, five-door successor doesn’t quite continue the magic, despite Dieppe’s effortful fettlings. But the main reason is that the X85 Clio RenaultSport remains one of the best-handling front-drive cars of all time. With luck, that will mean plenty of survivors.