Renault is bringing back the Gordini brand – but perhaps not in the way you might expect. The Twingo Gordini that sets the ball rolling next March certainly sports the correct colour scheme, but anyone expecting this to be a hardcore Renault is going to be disappointed.

Although it uses the standard Renaultsport underpinnings and can be had with the Cup chassis, the Gordini upgrades are purely cosmetic: quilted leather, cruise control, climate control. It’s expected to cost around $ 23,000.

The intention is for Gordini to be an upmarket trim level, intended to appeal to people who don’t usually buy a Renault (or appreciate the heritage of a badge that used to compete in Formula 1).

The words to keep in mind here are Mini and Cooper. Further Gordinis are in the offing. A Clio Gordini will arrive next March, based on the 1.6-litre 126bhp GT model and beyond that a Mégane Gordini is expected in 2011, although Renault Middle East hasn’t yet decided whether the Gordini name will be introduced to the region.

But Gordini is just the start: 2010 is shaping up to be a very busy year for Renaultsport. As well as managing the return of Gordini, the division will unveil a new product range, GT by Renaultsport. Kicking off at the Geneva motor show with a Mégane GT based on the existing 180bhp 2.0 TCE low-pressure turbo engine, the idea is to have a second sporting line-up below the existing Renaultsport cars, which from now on will wear ‘RS by Renaultsport’ badging.

‘The plan,’ according to Stephen Marvin, Renaultsport engineering boss, ‘is for the GT cars to be more affordable, so they’ll have some of the RS’s handling developments, but perhaps not the power.’ Existing GT models (there’s already a GT version of the Clio) will be brought under Renaultsport’s umbrella and may be altered to reflect their new more sporting positioning. ‘Further down the line,’ Marvin told us, ‘we’d still love to do a roadster or coupe’.

Alpine’s comeback – the first evidence of Renault blowing the dust off its back catalogue of names – was stalled when the financial crisis hit, but in its brief new life was tasked with coming up with just such a car.

Unlike Peugeot, Renault’s focus remains firmly on hot hatchbacks: ‘As long as they sell, we’ll keep building them,’ were Marvin’s words, although he admitted that a move to turbocharging across the range is probably inevitable, with the next-generation Clio being the obvious candidate. No more details are available yet, although Marvin did admit that BMW’s twin-turbo was an engine that Renault admired both for its low-end response and top-end power. A twin-turbo Clio? It’s not as far-fetched as you might imagine.