History of the Renault 5 Turbo: Time For Tea?

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

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.