Tuesday 21st October 2014

History of the Renault 5 Turbo: Time For Tea?

The beginnings of Renault's hot hatch legacy, starring J Ragnotti

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Let's hope Renaultsport can work some magic on the current Clio, even if it does take a Nissan crossover to buck their ideas up. Lord knows it has some heritage with Clios and small Renaults in general.

Here is a clip from Renault's own documentary on the 5 and its growth from cute city car to Group B rally warrior. It was quite the transformation, spurred on by an emergent French rally talent in the 70s, one Jean Ragnotti. He took second at the 1978 Monte Carlo rally in a Group 2 Renault 5 Alpine, a car that wasn't realistically expected to finish any higher than eighth. If that's what he can achieve in a theoretically slow car, imagine what he could do in a fast one...

So then we're onto the Turbo's development, with great period footage of big arches being bashed on and engines being installed through the boot. There's plenty of Ragnotti/5 action too, including a victory on the car's debut at Monte Carlo and a reunion with the original Alpine car. A great way to while away the minutes before home time!

See the video here.

 

[SmartVenom]

Fantastic car. I love the one in the picture, red on red with a bit more red thrown in just for good measure. Perfect 80s cool.

[deltashad]

My first car was a lecar2, I loved these back then and they have lost no appeal. Stunning, Barbara Carrera JB. mmmmm.....

[deltashad]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5xc8E-R2AY

[jonkers]

I had an '84 Gordini Turbo that was ballistic when it worked. It would happily wheelspin in 3rd in the dry.

In my year of ownership it'd had a new steering rack & head gasket and was heading toward a new turbo & clutch. I sold it but I think somewhere in rolled-over-wonga-debt I'm still paying for it, 25 years later.

[Pixelpeep7r]

set my heart on owning one 'by the time i was 25' - i'm now 40 and feel i missed the boat lol

Friend had one in the 90's - the dark blue raider. it looked awesome

[LotusOmega375D]

Shame they cut off the Maxi 5 section. Despite being only 2WD it was the quickest of all the Group B cars on tarmac: massive torque and light weight helped. They also sorted out that obvious design fault: namely the front track was always narrower than the rear until the Maxi was produced. This led to the twitchy handling and, yes, an R5 Turbo 2 is the only car of mine that I've ever spun. But I was showing off at a Bruntingthorpe track day at the time, so only damaged my pride! Still miss it.

[IronFire]

[iloveboost]

Pixelpeep7r said:

set my heart on owning one 'by the time i was 25' - i'm now 40 and feel i missed the boat lol

Friend had one in the 90's - the dark blue raider. it looked awesome

You never know they may make a reasonably priced Renaultsport Twingo 1.2 Turbo with 120hp-ish and that's now mid engined. It will be reasonably priced if they do. I doubt they will make one with a 1.6 turbo or V6, but they did make the Renault 5 Turbo and Clio V6.

[roystinho]

On the first round of cars I'd buy with a lottery win. Love 'em

[SteveSteveson]

Someone tell me why it's a bad idea to buy a Clio V6... This makes me want one so bad and the seem reasonable price at the moment.

[The Hypno-Toad]

Part of one of my funniest motorsport memories...

The final F2 race, 1984, Brands Hatch.

The Renault 5 Turbo Championship was one of the support races. Most of these guys seemed to be from Holland and apart from the clearly slumming it Jan Lammers, most had obviously never seen Brands or Druids before.

Bearing in mind it was mildly moist they all went barrelling out of the pits for the first time and up to the hairpin one by one....

Skiddy noises, gravel noises.
Skiddy noises, gravel noises.
Skiddy noises, gravel noises.
Skiddy noises, gravel noises.
Skiddy noises, clumping bendy noises.
Skiddy noises, clumping bendy noises.
Red Flag
Assorted sheepish Dutch Renault drivers, lots of laughing spectators.

Funnily enough I've just remembered my other funniest motorsport moment was also at Brands, the Formula Woman race in the Mazda RX-8s. Similar thing but they didn't even make it past Paddock Hill Bend.

[Shuttle Cock]

I remember Mr Ragnotti driving the course car at the Monaco in the 90's, although I'm sure it was a Clio v6, driving in his sideways style showing off and colliding with Taki Inoue's Footwork, which flipped it over.

[roystinho]

SteveSteveson said:

Someone tell me why it's a bad idea to buy a Clio V6... This makes me want one so bad and the seem reasonable price at the moment.

It's not a bad idea, they're great cars. Sorely miss mine

[D1on]

SteveSteveson said:

Someone tell me why it's a bad idea to buy a Clio V6... This makes me want one so bad and the seem reasonable price at the moment.

How much is a "Cheap'ish" Clio V6? I'd love one...

[daytona365]

A Renault 5, any one, is so much better than anyone who's never had one would believe. Simple, frugal, basic albeit with a comfortable ride and virtually bombproof despite its looks.

[Cliov6dan]

D1on said:

How much is a "Cheap'ish" Clio V6? I'd love one...

You could pick up a tidy phase 1 clio for around 10k or phase 2 around 16k.

[cptsideways]

Vive le 5


Owned a Turbo Gordini Turbo back in the day (briefly) huge fun, if somewhat dangerous at the same time.

[dapprman]

Every so often I look out for a Renault 5 for a fun run around, but they're now rare and the ones I see (normally last generation 1.4 student (?)) are over-priced. Even the 0.9 I was lent for a few months (with dashboard gear lever) was fun.

[numtumfutunch]

I ran a red phase 2 GT Turbo from new for 10 months till I emigrated

Possibly my favourite ever car

Properly crackers in a way cars just arent any more

[ttthilvester]

I owned a silver Phase 2 GTT in the mid to late '90s - fabulous little car, and if cared for properly, utterly reliable.

Huge fun in a tiny car - economical, comfortable, practical and bloody quick for 120BHP - look how many extra horses you require nowadays to attain the same performance! (tho' I know most of that is due to the gradual increase of modern cars' porkiness and all the electrical doo-dads). And look at the size of modern hot hatches too - you couldn't call them pocket rockets now.

I think the only breakage in 3 or 4 years was a clutch cable (common fault, but easily rectified, and no longer a problem once the factory recall upgrade was done).

One of the cars I most regret selling.

Edited by ttthilvester on Wednesday 22 October 07:02