Renault 5 Turbo
The Renault 5 Turbo or R5 Turbo is a
high-performance hatchback automobile launched by the French manufacturer
Renault at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1980. The car was primarily
designed for rallying, but was also sold in a street version. A total of 3576
R5 Turbos were manufactured during a four-year production run.
In response to Lancia's rallying success
with the mid-engined Stratos, Renault's Jean Terramorsi, vice-president of
production, asked Bertone’s Marc Deschamps to design a new sports version of
the Renault 5 Alpine supermini. The distinctive new rear bodywork was styled by
Marcello Gandini at Bertone.
Although the standard Renault 5 has a
front-mounted engine, the 5 Turbo featured a mid-mounted 1397 cc Cléon-Fonte
turbocharged engine placed behind the driver in mid-body in a modified Renault
5 chassis. In standard form, the engine developed 160 horsepower and 221 Nm torque.
Though it used a modified body from a
standard Renault 5, and was badged a Renault 5, the mechanicals were radically
different, the most obvious difference being rear-wheel drive and
rear-mid-engined instead of the normal version's front-wheel drive and
front-mounted engine. At the time of its launch it was the most powerful
production French car. The first 400 production 5 Turbos were made to comply
with Group 4 homologation to allow the car to compete in international rallies,
and were manufactured at the Alpine factory in Dieppe.
Once the homologation models were
produced, a second version named Turbo 2 was introduced using more stock
Renault 5 parts replacing many of light alloy components in the original 5
Turbo version. The Turbo 2 was less expensive, but had nearly the same
levels of performance, top speed of 200 km/h and 0–100 km/h in 6.9
seconds. To differentiate it from the Turbo 2, the original 5 Turbo is often
referred to retronomously as "Turbo 1".
All the motorsport derivatives were
based on the Turbo 1. The factory pushed the engine output up to 180 PS for the Critérium des Cévennes, 210 PS for the
Tour de Corse, and by 1984 as much as 350 PS in the R5 Maxi
Turbo.
Driven by Jean Ragnotti in 1981, the 5
Turbo won the Monte Carlo Rally on its first outing in the World Rally
Championship. The 2WD R5 turbo soon faced the competition of new Group B
four-wheel drive cars that proved faster on dirt.
In 2004, Sports Car International named
the R5 Turbo number nine on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s.
