Probably the best (and quite possibly the worst) characteristic of all French people is their pettiness . Yes, they will cook well for you, choose great wine and maybe even play melodious music… Actually, it's such a peaceful country. Why not, when the rumble of local businesses is silenced every now and then by a strike. Maybe that's why you can have reservations about a lot of small cars from France. Most of them were created on the knee secretly during the strike, during the lunch break, so that Jean's wife could deliver a fresh baguette the next day in a vehicle. But when the trade unionists finally stamped another food stamp for their salary, the engineers rushed to the drawing board with the vigor that improved the German hot-hatch concept almost to perfection.
But for now, we'll skip all the Gordini , GTI and Rallye versions and focus on the craziest thing ever to wear the Renault badge – the R5 Turbo model. Yes, it's still from the days when the word Turbo referred to a poster car and not a box strangled by a throttle. We might think that it was designed by a mechanic who accidentally grew hemp instead of vines in a vineyard. But the reasons in real life are unfortunately much more prosaic – motorsport . Renault was involved in the rally , but it was strongly dominated by the Lancia Stratos . Even the attempt with the A310 V6 didn't work out very well, the sports car from Dieppe simply didn't work as well as the Italian competition on gravel tracks.
In France, they knew they needed a mid- engined car to win, but developing a new platform would cost millions of francs. And you don't have those when workers wave banners under your window instead of assembling gearboxes on the line. So a few small R5 models were seized from storage, the engine was removed and the floor behind the front seats was cut out. A turbocharged four-cylinder was moving there. The increase in performance was 300%, so they had to play with other parameters of the car as well. No, it really isn't enough to just buy better pads. The axles were completely new and wider, because of them the subtle five also got a proper bodykit . Suddenly the car was almost as wide as it was long. And of course, they couldn't even forgive the giant TURBO signs on the sides. In short, that was the time, when you had something, you had to scrounge. The French company Heuliez took the standard R5 model castles from Renault, where they replaced the roof and doors with aluminum parts. An auxiliary frame was mounted at the back, on which the engine was then placed. The completed base of the car was then transported to Dieppe , where the Alpine factory (today Renault Sport ) was located. Final assembly was then carried out in its workshops, and the finished cars left ready for customers.
We will mainly remember the Turbo Five thanks to the rally. Behind the wheel of a small shopping bag, we should mainly remember Jean Ragnotti , who won the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally for Renault . But the Renaults had to clear the front rows relatively soon, because Audi established the supremacy of cars with all-wheel drive . Even an attempt with a more powerful version of the MAXI 5 Turbo didn't quite work out, Ragnotti only won the Corsica rally in 1985, because the car had no chance of success anywhere other than on asphalt.
In 2001, Renault tried to revive this legend and introduced the Clio V6 to the world. The little guy of the second generation got a big three-liter engine instead of rear seats. And, of course, a lot of trinkets for show, such as an aggressive body kit , big wheels and sports accessories in the interior. And according to Jeremy Clarkson, it's the funkiest car in the world, so we'll definitely talk more about it at some point.
Photo: AutoWP
