RE: Shed Of The Week: Renault 5 Monaco

RE: Shed Of The Week: Renault 5 Monaco

Author
Discussion

LeoZwalf

2,802 posts

230 months

Friday 12th December 2014
quotequote all
daytona365 said:
Love it. A cheap, reliable, frugal little workhorse that has real character for less than a packet of chips !
You are buying VERY expensive chips!

Thebaggers

351 posts

133 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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AC43 said:
Back in the 80's a mate of mine offered to change a starter motor on one of these as favour to an acquaintance.

How hard could it be? Welcome to the world of French engine bays....

Still, interesting shed.
Snap. I still have a scar on my finger from that.

I did a survey whilst at university on which car the hottest girls drove. Renault 5 won hands down!

Limpet

6,310 posts

161 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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Spare tyre said:
when i was 17 i was driving some proper crap


every weekend the local youth from the surrounding area would nick a car and dump it in the near by field, usually old astras the like. I'd walk the dog down there on a saturday morning and always have a good look round the cars as i found it interesting.
Yep, same where I grew up too. I reckon I'd see between two and five SRi, GTE and GSi Vauxhalls, 5 Turbos, XR/RS Fords, GTI Peugeots and VWs a week abandoned, in a state between relatively intact, and completely burned out. All this stuff was ten-a-penny then of course, but any of them in good nick would be worth decent money now. I also can't help but wonder how much more common these cars would be if they hadn't been nicked and destroyed in such numbers. In my town alone there must have been thousands of cars met this fate during the joyriding epidemic of the early 90s.

As for this shed, I remember 1.7 litres always seemed like a ludicrously big engine for a car like this back in the day. This looks like a nice timewarp classic, for sensible money.

daytona365

1,773 posts

164 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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LeoZwalf said:
You are buying VERY expensive chips!
...Monaco chips of course.

soad

32,895 posts

176 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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rolo0151 said:
I'd happily smoke around in that. Love that old style leather interior.
It has some charm.

pSyCoSiS

3,596 posts

205 months

Friday 12th December 2014
quotequote all
A very cool SOTW.

Something different.

Weird to think it has the same high spec and similar engine size as the bigger saloons of the time, like the Vauxhall Carlton, Sapphire, BMW E36, etc.


rob.e

2,861 posts

278 months

Friday 12th December 2014
quotequote all
Back in the late 80's as a student i ran a renault 11 with the same 1.7 engine.

Ok, its not going to be quick by modern standards but at the time it was pretty respectable performance, remember gti's etc were around 8-9 seconds 0-60 back then. As above i had mine as it was as quick as say, an XR2 but buttons to insure.

I'd expect that 5 to fly smile

LeoZwalf

2,802 posts

230 months

Friday 12th December 2014
quotequote all
daytona365 said:
LeoZwalf said:
You are buying VERY expensive chips!
...Monaco chips of course.
Ugh, I'm such a pleb and as such was of course thinking of the type of chips made potato and doused in salt and vinegar, yum yum.

sjabrown

1,916 posts

160 months

Friday 12th December 2014
quotequote all
Wonderful shed. R5s used to be such common cars, only see a few now driven generally by crumbly old women around here. I do remember thinking that a 1.7 engine in a car made of crisp packets seemed brave. Wouldn't mind owning one just for the quirkiness.

soad

32,895 posts

176 months

Friday 12th December 2014
quotequote all
The MOT has expired. Unless it's a typo (2015, aynone?). wink

PATTERNPART

693 posts

201 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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Not bad. My boss had the Monaco version of the 25. Dead posh I reckoned at the time. It came with Renault's super duper built in radio with remote control. It sounded terrible! Or maybe he didn't know how to adjust it. A couple of mates had access to earlier (nicer) R5's during 6th form era as two door and a four door. The front seats were fabulously comfortable.

grenpayne

1,988 posts

162 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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Bencolem said:
Epic return to form by SOTW.
+1

Agent Orange

2,194 posts

246 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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Glorious, glorious shed!

Back in the day when I had a Renault 5GTL, Gordini, Gordini Turbo this was such a want as a second/luxury lottery win car.

I have no idea if feasible but always fancied the idea of the 1.7 motor with the R5 GT Turbo.

Only recently I was bemoaning the lack of large engined and wafty hatchbacks with sumptuously crafted interiors and back then this was such a car. The Monaco was a peach and reeked of well heeled money.

Back then VW had Paul Hamilton driving a Golf GTI. She wouldn't have been driving a Golf GTI - she'd have driven a R5 Monaco.

Good shed smile

WCZ

10,526 posts

194 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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best shed of the week in ages

pete5570

270 posts

172 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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Great shed! 90bhp in that. It's gonna be fairly quick, a bit of old school tweakery should squeeze a few more horses out of that engine. If I wasn't so far away, I'd have it in a heart beat.

tadaah

214 posts

211 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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My dad ran two R25 Monacos as company cars

I seem the recall the D plate one had the better leather of the two (facelift car seemed a bit less "nice") but I just remember two things:

1) the huge Phillips stereo in the centre console with the graphic equalizer (very impressive back in the day)
2) The fact that if you opened the hatch with one wheel on the kerb then you couldn't shut it!

MadDog1962

890 posts

162 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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I quite liked these when they were new. Not a bad little runabout. But do remember that it's over 25 years old.

Just prepared for a lot of seals and anything plastic or rubber to be rather brittle. This particularly applies to suspension and steering components. As long as you go into shed ownership well aware of this (and ideally able to fix things yourself) you can have a lot of fun and cheap motoring.

Jabosoc

2,335 posts

231 months

Friday 12th December 2014
quotequote all
My Dad had the big 25 Monaco "back in the day", and I've since had a 5 Campus, they're brilliant fun and I always quite liked the brown/beige combo.

Rust doesn't seem to be a major concern with these either, other than on the subframe.

c1j782

2 posts

121 months

Friday 12th December 2014
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AC43 said:
Back in the 80's a mate of mine offered to change a starter motor on one of these as favour to an acquaintance.

How hard could it be? Welcome to the world of French engine bays....

Still, interesting shed.
I changed the starter motor in my own GTX and it wasn't that hard.
Now I have a GT Turbo and it has a much more crowded engine bay, but not as much as some modern cars.

Agent Orange said:
I have no idea if feasible but always fancied the idea of the 1.7 motor with the R5 GT Turbo.
This is called Renaul Super 5 GTE;)

bga

8,134 posts

251 months

Friday 12th December 2014
quotequote all
c1j782 said:
AC43 said:
Back in the 80's a mate of mine offered to change a starter motor on one of these as favour to an acquaintance.

How hard could it be? Welcome to the world of French engine bays....

Still, interesting shed.
I changed the starter motor in my own GTX and it wasn't that hard.
Now I have a GT Turbo and it has a much more crowded engine bay, but not as much as some modern cars.
I didn't find it too hard either but that was on a 1994 model. Not sure if it was much more complex on a 1st generation model which it probably would have been in the 80's