RE: Renault 5 Gordini | Spotted

[Rumblestripe]

1602Mark said:

I recall something like that from the time. When I said 'best one' I meant best example, as opposed to it differing in spec' or something. My overriding memory is the terrible torque steer on boost and trying to keep it in a straight line along country lanes.

I bought an old Daily Star championship race car for a few hundred quid once. Possibly a TS? That was a fun thing.

All early FWD suffered from torque steer to some extent. The more powerful the engine the worse it was so although I never drove an R5 Turbo I can imagine it could be a pig under full throttle/boost. After the R5 I had a succession of small (and nasty) Datsuns (I was skint and had a young family by then) then a VW Santana which I loved, that had a 1.8 carb engine and suffered far less from torque steer than the Datsuns or the Renault. Nowadays torque steer is pretty much a forgotten problem even in the most powerful FWD cars.

[neutral 3]

My first 5 in Feb 91, was a white B reg, Le - Car turbo. Basically a run out Gordini turbo, with carpeting ( fawn ) to the front foot wells only and rubber matting to the rear. Glass sunroof was probably U.K. Oe spec fitment sadly.
Ex Wife and I bought it via Loot or E- Mart from a guy in nth west London. It had all its history and even its original bill of sale. Stupidly sold it in October 91, to finance a 69 Stingray we bought in Florida. A young lad and his mum came down from Luton and bought it on the spot. Sadly I reckon he must have tottaled it not long after, as when I last checked, it’s tax expired in 92. So wish I still had it.
Had a Silver Y or A reg non runner in circa 97, stupidly sold that one too for circa £400 quid.

One outstanding memory of the white one, was taking a left hander in Chigwell very quickly and feeling the over steer ( despite its new Monroe gas shocks - we later found out that I had been given low pressure gas shocks, instead of the high pressure units it should have been fitted with.

Another awesome memory is of being out in my Mums Y reg Lhasa green 1800 Golf GTi in east London one Saturday. We weren’t hanging around, when suddenly a met light blue Gordini turbo came up fast behind. I floored it, but @ 90, he was hanging onto the Gtis rear bumper, I moved over and as he pulled alongside, the big Jamaican driver, grinned at us, like a Cheshire Cat, as he disappeared into the distance, haha.

I’ve had probably 25 R5 GT Turbos since, Adore them, but I would give my back teeth to have that Le Car turbo back......

Edited by neutral 3 on Thursday 13th February 13:57

[Jaguar steve]

Rumblestripe said:

1602Mark said:

I recall something like that from the time. When I said 'best one' I meant best example, as opposed to it differing in spec' or something. My overriding memory is the terrible torque steer on boost and trying to keep it in a straight line along country lanes.

I bought an old Daily Star championship race car for a few hundred quid once. Possibly a TS? That was a fun thing.

All early FWD suffered from torque steer to some extent. The more powerful the engine the worse it was so although I never drove an R5 Turbo I can imagine it could be a pig under full throttle/boost. After the R5 I had a succession of small (and nasty) Datsuns (I was skint and had a young family by then) then a VW Santana which I loved, that had a 1.8 carb engine and suffered far less from torque steer than the Datsuns or the Renault. Nowadays torque steer is pretty much a forgotten problem even in the most powerful FWD cars.

I drove dozens of Gordini 5s, both n/a and turbo and a couple of the utterly bonkers mid engined RWD Turbo 2s when working as a spanner monkey for a Renault main dealer back in the early '80s.

Torque steer on the quicker mk 1 R5s was absolutely shocking - even the relatively tame 1300 5 TS would try to dislocate your thumbs when you nailled it with any lock on.

[MiltonBaines]

Back in the early 80s my best friend's parents suddenly became minted. His mum bought an identical Gordini to this one. I have many happy memories of trips in it. It was so cool and quick at the time. Cool factor was upped even more by his dad fixing a musical horn to it with a remote keypad so we could freestyle notes or play pre-set tunes like the Dukes of Hazard.
His newly minted dad bought a Granda 2.8 ghia X executive in white whereas my parents had an Austin Princess and a Ford Anglia.

[Caddyshack]

I had one at 17, lift off understeer at 70mph saw that come to a fairly folded up end and a night in hospital for me.

[gforceg]

I had a metallic blue Gordini back in about '87-88 (AWW 385X, gone but never forgotten). It was capable of surprising other drivers with a turn of speed they clearly didn't expect from a 5. A friend used to borrow his mum's Mk 2 XR2 and the pair were almost identical on performance. My Gordini had a tendency for lift off oversteer that used to scare the crap out of me (because I was always going too fast when I needed to back off).

Good times, but I moved on to a 1.6 then a 1.8 Mk1 Golf GTI, much safer all things considered.

[Caddyshack]

gforceg said:

I had a metallic blue Gordini back in about '87-88 (AWW 385X, gone but never forgotten). It was capable of surprising other drivers with a turn of speed they clearly didn't expect from a 5. A friend used to borrow his mum's Mk 2 XR2 and the pair were almost identical on performance. My Gordini had a tendency for lift off oversteer that used to scare the crap out of me (because I was always going too fast when I needed to back off).

Good times, but I moved on to a 1.6 then a 1.8 Mk1 Golf GTI, much safer all things considered.

Mine had a Webber twin choke carb, did they all have that? you could feel the step in performance when the bigger choke opened.

I was told the cam had been swapped on mine too. Certainly felt quick.

[1602Mark]

They were a good engine. I had a lift in one with a hot cam and flowed head and it was a properly quick little thing.

I recall taking my Alpine to Mr Clutch in Maidstone. It was a pig of a job and when I paid the bill the guy said he hoped he never had to do another. I got about 15 yards and at the first set of lights I could barely select 1st gear. As I tried to pull away the clutch slipped worse than ever. The Mr Clutch employees pushed it back in and blamed the gearbox, as I'd had it rebuilt by an old boy down the road at a small engineering shop. He came straight down and pulled out the knackered remains of the pilot bush Mr Clutch had forgotten to replace! Idiots. They did the job again but they couldn't get the gear shift properly adjusted but it split an oil line from the cooler whilst barreling down Bluebell Hill a few days later and that was that.

[gforceg]

Caddyshack said:

Mine had a Webber twin choke carb, did they all have that? you could feel the step in performance when the bigger choke opened.

I was told the cam had been swapped on mine too. Certainly felt quick.

I'm pretty sure it did, yes. As you say, there was a pronounced step as the revs rose.
I still have a Ducellier coil for it that I never installed!

[politeperson]

I once fitted the engine from one into a Renault 4GTL. It was a superb conversion (by my low standards), the 4 seemed very quick indeed at the time.

Now the 5 looks like a shoe on the road, that is the main problem.

It is tiny. Minuscule.

[Jaguar steve]

1602Mark said:

They were a good engine. I had a lift in one with a hot cam and flowed head and it was a properly quick little thing.

I recall taking my Alpine to Mr Clutch in Maidstone. It was a pig of a job and when I paid the bill the guy said he hoped he never had to do another. I got about 15 yards and at the first set of lights I could barely select 1st gear. As I tried to pull away the clutch slipped worse than ever. The Mr Clutch employees pushed it back in and blamed the gearbox, as I'd had it rebuilt by an old boy down the road at a small engineering shop. He came straight down and pulled out the knackered remains of the pilot bush Mr Clutch had forgotten to replace! Idiots. They did the job again but they couldn't get the gear shift properly adjusted but it split an oil line from the cooler whilst barreling down Bluebell Hill a few days later and that was that.

The 5 speed 'boxes were a PITA to get out of a Mk 1 R5, there's millimeters of clearance and several blind bolts to get undone and all the suspension had to come apart to get the driveshafts out the 'box. Even with experience of doing several it still would take 4 hours to change a clutch. If you had to change a timing chain - there was a batch of faulty chain tensioners from the factory - the entire engine and gearbox had to come out for what otherwise would be a easy 20 minute job...

[carinaman]

Now being auctioned on eBay. Currently just over £1K:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1981-Renault-5-Gordini-...

[aeropilot]

A guy in my old motor club who I was good mates with back in the early 80's had one of these, a met blue one. He bought it new to replace the Escort RS Mexico he had bought new in 1977......something he regretted after a few months with the Reggie..!

The Gordini seemed to have an electrical system that seemed to be possessed with ever random faults........that the dealers couldn't seem to fix.

He started to call it Damien as a result

He'd had owned the RS for almost 4 years, but got shot of Damien after 2 years with it, and replaced it with an XR3i.

[DonkeyApple]

Rumblestripe said:

All early FWD suffered from torque steer to some extent. The more powerful the engine the worse it was so although I never drove an R5 Turbo I can imagine it could be a pig under full throttle/boost. After the R5 I had a succession of small (and nasty) Datsuns (I was skint and had a young family by then) then a VW Santana which I loved, that had a 1.8 carb engine and suffered far less from torque steer than the Datsuns or the Renault. Nowadays torque steer is pretty much a forgotten problem even in the most powerful FWD cars.

That’s a little weird. My first car was a 1.4 R5 TS with the twin choke carb. Black with the beige interior as per the car in this thread. My second car was a VW Santana GLS or GTS, with the 5 cylinder engine. The R5 didn’t have enough power to really feel any torque steer but you could feel it a bit in the VW. That car was more legendary for the way the bonnet raised about an inch when you put your foot down and it’s tremendous love of understeer.

During the time that I had those cars my mother had a 1.7 later shape R5. If anyone thought the turbo version liked torquesteer the 1.7 NA car was unbelievable!

[Olas]

DonkeyApple said:

That’s a little weird. My first car was a 1.4 R5 TS with the twin choke carb. Black with the beige interior as per the car in this thread. My second car was a VW Santana GLS or GTS, with the 5 cylinder engine. The R5 didn’t have enough power to really feel any torque steer but you could feel it a bit in the VW. That car was more legendary for the way the bonnet raised about an inch when you put your foot down and it’s tremendous love of understeer.

During the time that I had those cars my mother had a 1.7 later shape R5. If anyone thought the turbo version liked torquesteer the 1.7 NA car was unbelievable!

Was the R5 sold in NA? I ask because the Santana was the NA badge given to the Passat of the same age (like how they called the Venti a Jetta)
Which leads me to the next question;
If they didn’t sell the R5 in NA, did you import a Santana instead of buying a Passat?

[Justin S]

Mate had a metallic blue Gordini Turbo and being french and the ability to regularly implode with carbs and turbos, spent a lot of time in the Renault dealer. Head off meant taking the engine out, if I remember. Eventually he killed it and came back from Renault with an Alpine engine in it , so the rocker cover said . Was slightly quicker again, but for 17 year olds, then was a ballistic missile. Was fun but very fragile. Awesome in the day though..............My parents only bought me a mini 1000 for 250 notes then , so Dave's R5 was crazy as a first car.

[DonkeyApple]

Olas said:

Was the R5 sold in NA? I ask because the Santana was the NA badge given to the Passat of the same age (like how they called the Venti a Jetta)
Which leads me to the next question;
If they didn’t sell the R5 in NA, did you import a Santana instead of buying a Passat?

Not sure I follow? My R5 was the first shape and a 1.4 TS. My next car was a 2L VW Santana, the saloon version of the Passat which was a hatch or estate. At that time my mother had a second shape R5 which was a 1.7 NA that sold at the same time as the 1.4 turbo of that shape.

[Olas]

NA as in North America - I didn’t know they sold R5 in North America,
And
I thought they only sold cars badged as Santana in North & South America?

We had an R5 and a Passat.
Yanks had no R5 but they did have a Santana?

[DonkeyApple]

Olas said:

NA as in North America - I didn’t know they sold R5 in North America,
And
I thought they only sold cars badged as Santana in North & South America?

We had an R5 and a Passat.
Yanks had no R5 but they did have a Santana?

NA Normally Aspirated.

The Santana was sold in the UK. It was the saloon version of the Passat. I only ever saw one or two others when I had it.

It was nicknamed the Mexican Minicab because mates had only ever seen other ones in South America. Others often mistook it for a brown Passat when it was clearly a gold Santana. It also had Aston Martin rear lights which made it three times more valuable than the conventional Passat.

[V1nce Fox]

had a blue gordini turbo. loved it. it felt so much faster than it looked and surprised a lot of more well known performance cars.