Thursday 12th April 2012

Spotted: Renault 5 Turbo 2

The front-drive hatch that became a mid-engined monster. Mad, but awesomely so

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We often rabbit on about the halcyon days of Group B here on PH, and we're afraid it's another 'ee, weren't rallying great back then' moment with today's spotted - a Renault 5 Turbo 2.

Although the Renault 5 Turbo wasn't the most successful rallyist of the group B era, it was notable for several reasons. For starters it won on its first time out in 1981, competing then as a Group 4 car ahead of Group B's introduction in 1983. And with the legendary Jean Ragnotti at the wheel it looked spectacular, especially in 350hp Group B Maxi guise - see videobelow. Better yet Renault actually kept selling a version of the road car, even after the 400 examples required for homologation had been built - not something many rivals did.

The turbocharged, mid-engined R5 was also a wonderfully wacky piece of work. Taking a front-drive shopper, slinging an engine where the rear seats should be and making it rear-wheel drive might seem commonplace after the Metro 6R4 and when Renault reprised the trick for the Clio V6, but it really is a bizarre thing to do when you think about it. Brilliantly bizarre, but bizarre nevertheless.

The cheeky super-trolley didn't hang about either; 160hp might not seem like an awful lot, but it only had 970kg to lug around and so could hit 130mph and launch itself to 62mph in 6.6 seconds. Definitely the stuff of rally-fuelled fantasies 30 years ago and respectable even now.

Playing such games is not going to be a particularly cheap experience these days, however. When new it cost around £17K, and a similar one we featuredin PH Carpool a few months back cost £7,500 in 1992, so the £34,990 that Hills of Lymington are asking for this Turbo2 today seems like quite an eye-popping price. Then again, it has only done 11,000 miles, and the only otherTurbo 2 we could find for sale on PH is up for 25,500 euros (in Ireland), has a few more miles on it, and has been converted to RHD...

...We suppose it all depends on what price you attach to being able to pretend you're Jean Ragnotti...

 

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RENAULT 5 TURBO 2
Engine: 1,397cc four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: 5-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 160@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 163@3,250rpm
MPG: N/A 
CO2: N/A
First registered: 1982
Recorded mileage:11,000
Price new: £17,000
Yours for: £34,990

[davidcharles]

i always thought Renault 5's were ugly and overrated but i quite like that....bet its great fun

[bazza1000]

What a legendary little French crazy hatch!

[iain1970]

Always top of my "Big Win Garage" list.

[SirSamuelOfBuca]

would love one in red.

theres a maxi for sale 150k euros at the moment. fingers crossed for lotto numbers =-]

[cragswinter]

i have history with these beauties. back in the day a local fella had one, we would bike over to his just to gawp at the thing.

ten years later & in my early 20's i spotted it driving again for the first time in years, followed him home & had a caric, told him i was one of the local lads who used to pester him for a look at it & stuff, anyway he had decided to sell it & it was mine for 7 grand, not peanuts but only £500 quid more than i'd paid for my fiesta rs turbo at the time. did the maths & decided to try & go for it.

long story short by the time i'd sold the fiesta & decided to get all sensible & buy a house to do up instead.

so not all bad but man i wish i'd bought it. white like this one but with a beige interior.

shirley the easiest way to get a groupB homologation special these days

[Parabola]

Immense.

There was one parked up in our campsite at Le Mans. It was getting a lot more attention than the Ferrari & Porsches!

[don logan]

In 1991 I tried EVERYTHING I could to find the £8.5k I needed to buy one but failed!

Still want one!

[Hoygo]

I'd have one in a heartbeat if i had the money (the 25.000 Euro one) one of the coolest car ever,and never seen one on the road.

[CalNaughtonJnr]

Just out of interest, what was the layout of the Peugeot 205 T16 road cars?

[Lord_Howit_Hertz]

I know its not completely the same model, and I know I have posted this before on other threads with regards to this car, but I spotted this at Oulton Park a while back, and despite all the Ferrari's etc around it, this just stood out, so good to see in person!

[IanO]

I have loved these ever since watching Evil Bond Woman driving a red one in Never Say Never Again.

[B10]

Would love even more one of the earlier Turbo 1s, with its better interior etc. Great cars, sadly in my 20's I only had an R5 GTL.

[johnpeat]

I love the other ad

"electric windows open slowly"

Tin of Silicon spray liberally emptied around the frame (with the window down obv) will resolve that one for any car...

Do people think electric motors get lazy or something - if it's slow, something's making it slow, most likely all the crap around the window frame!!

[Chris Stott]

Mmmm.... red velour interior

[GTRene]

indeed lovely little monsters :-)
love them by looks and so different and RWD instead of FWD
never bought one though....160hp is not the 350hp from the rally monsters and I don't know about how rusty they can be? normal R5 rust a lot (most)

and I love the Peugeot T16 (205 turbo 4wd) even more, but sadly those are even more expensive.


http://www.carblog.fr/galeries-photos/vehicules-my...

Edited by GTRene on Thursday 12th April 14:07

[anything fast]

Sean Connery was chased by black one in Never Say Never Again, one of the worst bond films (although it was not associated with the other bond movies) Looked like amazing fun as it oversteered everywhere.. one of the best bond car chase scenes..

[deltashad]

davidcharles said:

i always thought Renault 5's were ugly and overrated but i quite like that....bet its great fun

My father bought me a 5 le car 2 1100 original shape for my first car. I didn't want it but had no choice. It handled really well, spent most of its life on three wheels. I grew to love it and spent a few quid on gordini parts trying to make it cool. It was slow as a sliding poo in a urinal but totally adorable. I had the fortune of spending a day driving a lightly breathed on gordini turbo, no badges in primer red. That was one of my best car experiences ever. I didn't want to give it back to its owner....

[dhf]

I somehow scrapped the money together years back and bought a red one converted to RHD with a few tweeks which brought it up to about 235BHP, reg RXR5.
I had major fun with it but it really was just too fast in the bends for rural Ireland in those days,trying to scrub off speed whilst meeting a flock of sheep/donkey and cart mid bend was no fun.
Always a crowd puller,it wasn't unusual to find 20 plus people around it when it was parked even in the UK and Germany as well.
Would definitely get one for the Dream Garage
Oh and did i mention the noise,combination of Bark and Spinning Turbo,sounded way better than the one in the video..

Edited by dhf on Thursday 12th April 14:21

[Terry Barr]

Funny that the Turbo 2 should come up today as this morning I spotted a Clio V6. They must be fairly rare, I don't remember seeing one in the flesh before.

Edit to add:
dhf, for attention you want to try taking an Exige S1 to Donegal. I gad it parked in the ain street in Buncrana for a several hours a few years ago and the whole town seemed to be taking photos.

Edited by Terry Barr on Thursday 12th April 14:33

[dave stew]

Lord_Howit_Hertz said:

I know its not completely the same model, and I know I have posted this before on other threads with regards to this car, but I spotted this at Oulton Park a while back, and despite all the Ferrari's etc around it, this just stood out, so good to see in person!

Wow - that is stunning - deep dish Minilites look so good on cars like this.