Renault 21 Group N: You Know You Want To
A Penthouse centrefold car, endurance racer and very rare Renault to boot!
"Chaps, how do we make the 21 sexy?"
According to the ad, this is the last remaining Group N 21. You can't imagine there were many to start with... It began its life in Holland but was soon sold to Renault UK and competed in the first 24-hour race held in Britain, at Snetterton in 1989. It was driven by Giles Butterfield, Charles Challenger, Charles Rickett and Peter Sneller, perhaps the four most splendidly named racing drivers ever known.
It was also sponsored by Penthouse. Yes really, check out the pictures. They were so proud of the alliance in fact that this very car was the centrefold image in the May 1988 issue. Classy.
But sadly after the glamour and girls of the Snetterton 24 Hours (plus the Penthouse shoot), this 21 went into storage in 1991. Nearly a quarter of a century later it is being sold, currently residing in Bicester and looking a little sorry for itself. Unused racing cars, especially those without their liveries, nearly always do. There are still some fairly clear clues to its past though, namely the side-exit exhaust, cut-off switch and gigantic fuel tanks.
Turbine wheels still very cool
Brought back to full health - hopefully someone can sort a livery too - it could compete in a Classic Touring Car Racing Club series, plus surely a few sprints and hillclimbs too. There wouldn't be any danger of seeing another at the very least!
But whatever the final outcome for this 21, let's just celebrate that it's here and available. It will probably be a fairly time consuming project, and it's far from the obvious choice, but surely the scarcity is a big part of the appeal. As for a price, a Group N 405 Mi16 was being sold privately for £5K recently; this car will likely be more than that given the provenance. Imagine if you could get the two together...
RENAULT 21 TURBO GROUP N
Price: POA
Why you should: Turbocharged and 80s touring car
Why you shouldn't: Not a Sierra, probably needs lot of TLC
See the original advert here.
From the seller even more frustrating that an Avantime is POA - surely a value could be put on one of those fairly easily by the seller.
Shame the PH article neglects the fact that it took part in the first 25 hour race, in 1989: to coincide with the 25th anniversary of sponsor Willhire.
I was at Snet for the two races it competed in: I remember it not being particularly quick in comparison with the Sierras and M3s but it was popular with the crowd because it was bit, well, different.
I went to a couple of Willhire events they were great to watch with a wide variety of production based cars lightly modified for racing it was interesting to see how smaller class cars like a swift gti or Corolla 16v could try and compete with the bigger class cars over 24 hours.
I'm not sure £14k is a representative value but each to his own :-)
Trouble is, I could build one that a lot tricker, and faster now for about ten grand less that the asking price of this one!
I also have a copy of the Penthouse magazine with this car in it somewhere
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