Still don't fancy an electric R5? How about this

Griff Rhys Jones would be proud...

Among the car industry’s hot topics, there may be none so scorchingly warm as how exactly it goes about the job of coaxing people willingly into EVs. Cost has proven an effective driver, particularly with regard to the favourable tax situation enjoyed by business users. But even for the casual enthusiast, a no-brainer financial incentive is nowhere near as compelling as cars that pull on the heartstrings. Hence the frantic pursuit of an alternative approach, whether it be in the shape of something very progressively new (i.e. the Ferrari Luce or Jaguar Type01), or something that appears craftily old-fashioned (i.e. the Renault 5 E-Tech).

Given the broader appetite in society for harking back to simpler times (Little House on the Prairie reboot, anyone?), it is perhaps unsurprising that the Renault approach is currently winning hands down. Not only is its electric supermini earning fans all over the place, it has done an ostensibly fine job of gatecrashing the high-end market, too. The 555hp Renault 5 Turbo 3E might not have sold out, but many if not most observers are inclined to think that its unapologetic recycling of past design cues absolutely look the part. And our recent experience from the passenger’s seat suggests the car isn’t writing cheques its chassis can’t cash.

Nevertheless, the 3E requires your enthusiasm to have reached the kind of fever pitch that a £140k asking price demands. To get to that point, we’d argue you either need to be a) convinced that in-wheel e-motors are prospectively your cup of tea, or b) so enamoured with the R5 look and feel, and the era it harks back to, that you simply can’t resist. Because there are still ways of sating the latter without resorting to battery power. You could, for example, strap the rose-tinted welding goggles on and spend much less money on this very lovely-looking Renault 5 GT Turbo.

The Phase 1 sits neatly in Renault's fast-hatch timeline. It followed the naturally aspirated Renault 5 Alpine and Gordini models (and the exotically mid-engined, homologated 5 Turbo that inspired the 3E), then gave way first to the water-cooled, colour-coded Phase 2 and, once the Supercinq was done, to the Clio 16V and Williams carrying the torch. If you remember Griff Rhys Jones hustling one in the 1986 TV ad, you'll remember how Renault sold it as well: this was the naughty one. The Renault 5 for people already sold on the idea of a hot hatch.

This example is a late car, first registered in June 1987. The first owner was sufficiently pleased with their purchase to keep it for 20 years, and evidently resisted the urge to jump on the Max Power bandwagon. On paper, 0-62mph in 7.5 seconds and around 125mph no longer sound dramatic, but against a 205 GTI or Mk2 Golf GTI, they looked serious enough. More to the point, of course, Renault did things its own way, the 1.4-litre turbo chiming splendidly with the kerbweight of a tin can, even if the resulting lag had the tendency to provide chancy overtakes with a second act.

Admittedly this is no box-fresh time capsule: it has been through five other owners since the first, and what seems like several rounds of restoration since an early insurance payout. But largely unmolested, honest-seeming Phase 1s are like hen’s teeth. Which makes the £19,995 asking price seem less absurd than it otherwise might. It’ll obviously require the due diligence that the 3E wouldn’t - and much more ongoing TLC - but if your memory bank still stores one somewhere between a 205 and a police caution, it ought to deliver the kind of raw-edged, atavistic thrill that no 21st-century EV ever could - no matter what it looks like.

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rossub

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