RE: Spotted: Renault 21 Turbo
Discussion
Strawman said:
No I was just commenting on the exterior styling, to me it looks like a Montego, which was hardly avantgarde back then, I'd say turbo SAAB 900 from that era handled better with their double wishbone front suspension. I still think yellow foglights are cool.
Fair do's buddy. 
Having run one for two years in the mid-90s I can attest to its rapidness. Mine was showing just over 100k on the clock and with an exhaust only it was dyno'd at 200bhp by AMD with no other fettling. Considering it was 175 brake as standard, that's some increase.
Standard issues aplenty included mental gauge action when a window was opened/closed, rev counter overreading by 5,000 rpm briefly and dropping back to normal (that happened quite frequently) and the radio that occasionally turning itself on (though I lived with that as the backlit orange lighting made it look cool).
Having also had an '85 flat-front 900 Turbo 16S, I'd say they're about on par in the handling stakes. If anything, the 21 was marginally better.
God, I miss my youth.
11 Turbos (and 21s) were seriously underrated back then. I bought an 11 T because I couldn't afford a 5 GTT, but you could have almost as much fun in the 11 without the mental insurance premium associated with the forever-stolen 5.
Agree about the seats, too! Great looking (even the steering wheel was a joy to behold) - shame that 80s Renaults were built like a fag packet.
Agree about the seats, too! Great looking (even the steering wheel was a joy to behold) - shame that 80s Renaults were built like a fag packet.
Casting my memory back to the late 90's when i was attending local cruises ( St Peters Street Maidstone(the bridge) for any of the old people on here who remember those heady days when cruises were about petrolheads....lol) there were a group up there of renault owners, most had 5 turbo's and one had an 11 turbo, but the dadfdy of the group was a very played with 21 Quadra turbo, that thing was awesome would annhilate most cars, but for me it was the sound, a very characterful engine note. Great cars when you look back, only similar car was the 405 T16 ( but left hooker ony)
I had a phase 2 21 turbo. It had everything done to the engine that was possible at the time, charge cooler, big turbo, lightened pistons, etc, etc. It was used as a demo car for a local tuning company. Damn fast but the bottom end went one day going down the M1. Being young and stupid I turned the boost up too high and knackered it 
I remember taking my mates new one out for a good run and being absolutely
blown away by the performance. I now own a V12 Aston manual and a TVR Cerbera
that eats the Aston alive on performance. Looking at the bhp figures on my cars
compaired to the 21's the Renault seems puny in comparison but it just seemed
so damn fast back then.
blown away by the performance. I now own a V12 Aston manual and a TVR Cerbera
that eats the Aston alive on performance. Looking at the bhp figures on my cars
compaired to the 21's the Renault seems puny in comparison but it just seemed
so damn fast back then.
I had one of these and it was great for FWD. Indeed until my Golf GTI it was the only FWD car I have owned.
I upgraded the brakes, suspension, tweaked the torsion bars "squeezed" 16" wheels onto it, stainless exhaust, modified air filter and hybrid turbo.
It was quite unique as it had a 2 stage intercooler, one by the radiator, the other behind the OSF wheel (although the Escort Cosworth claimed to be the first production car to do that). I blew the core out of this when it was overboosting and putting out about 265bhp!
It was only an 8 valve head which made it more tractable and offered better in-gear performance when compared to the Sierra Cosworth of the time.
It ran it at 220 BHP (45bhp increase) for years without problem and it was a shame to see it go - although it went to a friend and I went back to RWD :-) Great performance per/£, although as a student at Uni at the time I didn't realise the MPG was so bad. Shows my choice in cars having had an RX8 and a TVR since, the Renault was better than both at 24mpg, although you don't buy these cars for fuel economy :-)
I upgraded the brakes, suspension, tweaked the torsion bars "squeezed" 16" wheels onto it, stainless exhaust, modified air filter and hybrid turbo.
It was quite unique as it had a 2 stage intercooler, one by the radiator, the other behind the OSF wheel (although the Escort Cosworth claimed to be the first production car to do that). I blew the core out of this when it was overboosting and putting out about 265bhp!
It was only an 8 valve head which made it more tractable and offered better in-gear performance when compared to the Sierra Cosworth of the time.
It ran it at 220 BHP (45bhp increase) for years without problem and it was a shame to see it go - although it went to a friend and I went back to RWD :-) Great performance per/£, although as a student at Uni at the time I didn't realise the MPG was so bad. Shows my choice in cars having had an RX8 and a TVR since, the Renault was better than both at 24mpg, although you don't buy these cars for fuel economy :-)
s m said:
No DaveL485 post yet? 
I was just thinking the same 
He's not at his desk at the moment, I'll give him a nudge when he's back and he can tell us all about his Renault 21 turbo obsession 
He bought a red phase 1 into work last week, for me the stand out feature was the taxi-cab spec leather interior
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