This is the Renault Filante Record 2025, and it is about as far from a run-of-the-mill Clio as you could possibly get. In fact, looking like a cross between the Michael Keaton-era Batmobile and a Star Wars Podracer, it’s described by Renault as “a laboratory on wheels for testing new technologies, materials and innovations”.

The Filante Record 2025 won’t just be a rolling lab though, because as the name suggests Renault is planning to use this outrageous looking single-seater to break world records for ‘power consumption and range with an 87kWh battery’. Yep, it’s all-electric. First attempts will take place in the first half of this year.

Renault said it has “always seen motorsports and records as a way to validate its innovations, before applying them to production models”, and so this particular concept car is inspired by the 40 CV des Records from 1925, the funky straight-eight Nervasport des Records from 1934 and the Étoile Filante from 1956. The former had a 9.0-litre straight-six that made around 140bhp and set a string of speed and endurance records in the 1920s, while the latter was a super streamlined, jet-engined 270bhp single-seater that broke four world records in one run at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Like that 1950s Étoile Filante, the new Filante Record 2025 has also been designed using aeronautical cues. The cockpit is supposed to look like it has been pinched directly from a fighter jet, while the exposed screws on the bodywork are apparently inspired by aircraft construction techniques.