The Renault R5 Turbo

The beginning

The Renault R5 turbo was a beast, a rally car that dominated the tight tarmac circuits in the World Rally Championship (WRC). The small footprint and big power allowed it to slide around like nobody’s business, the R5 turbo was a replacement for the Alpine A1 that was outdated and being beaten by the Ferrari powered Lancia Stratos. The R5 Turbo would leave fans unsettled and in disbelieve about the cars handling and performance, the R5 would leave the each sharp turn with a loud bang from the exhaust and would shoot flames in the straight stretches, the flames and pops pushed the crowd behind the tape.

The little hatchback borrowed turbo charging technology from formula one, the engine was a 1.4L engine as if it was a 1.5L then it would have been put into a class above where it would have been the weakest of the lot. The small French hatch could not have handled the massive 300 bhp from the 4L engine in the year 1972. In 1984 the car would sit on a brand new chassis that had exceptional road holding and performance, and would accommodate a sports version also.

The revolution

Jean Terramorsi wanted to develop a rally car using an existing Renault model, the car had to fit into the group 4 class, the third criteria is that it required very less modifications. But then the saving grace was Marc Deschamps who came up with idea of making the humble Renault 5 a mid-engined rally car. Sadly Marc passed away a year later, but Henry Lherm continued the project. The project was named project 822 and it took 2 years to develop. The first R5 Turbo was a mish-mash of various Alpine and Formula One parts. The R5 Turbo was supposed to be based on a complete tubular frame, instead a hole was made in the back of a R5 Turbo to fit the engine then the tubular frame was constructed around it. When it came to fitting the engine and gearbox they had to increase the rear end of the chassis by 10 inches. The suspension duty was handled by double wishbone independent suspension, this meant that it had the same wheelbase on both sides.

Jean Terramorsi

The power house

The 4 engineers had three engine options out of which they chose the 1.4L engine from the Alpine rally car and fitted it with a huge Garrett T3 turbo borrowed from Formula One, this engine had a higher compression ration allowing it to produce 13 pounds of boost. The fire breathing monster was cooled by an air to air intercooler mounted near the rear tail light, giving it that iconic look that we all remember, the wide squatted stance. The final sketch of the car was taken care of by Marcello Gandini who designed the Lancia Stratos, Lamborghini Miura, just to name a few. The production car made 250 bhp, did 0-60mph in 7 sec. The fuel system was Bosch K-Jetronic system which was not the best as it was only a 2 valve system. The R5 Turbo was the fastest French production car of its time.  R5 turbo would later also receive the option of converting the production car to a rally car with the help of a kit sold by Renault. The R5 Turbo came to a halt using ventilated disc brakes on all four corners.

The final iteration

In 1985 a change in the WRC suspension regulation meant that the car now was heavier and hence the 1.4L was swapped with the 1.5L, it was named the Renault Maxi Turbo.  The engine now pumped out 386bhp T31 turbocharger, five-speed Renault Sport close-ratio manual transmission, and ZF limited-slip differential. The new WRC regulations lead the R5 turbo to having an increased suspension travel. The car now had a larger front air dam as well. By this time the Audi Quattro had caught up and the R5 turbo could not keep up with the all-wheel drive monster, meaning that the 1985 season was the last racing season for Renault in WRC. Renault would still take part in other smaller rallies.

Maxi R 5 Turbo

The end

In the end we saw what a really hot hatchback was supposed to be, and it showed other mid-engined cars the correct way to take corners that is to slide the entire way with the tail sticking out, and huge anti lag flames. We car enthusiasts will miss cars like the R5 Turbo, but it paved the way for other hot-hatches from Renault. At a recent auction a Maxi Turbo sold for 360,000 pounds, and a R5 Turbo 2 sold for 69,000 pounds. The R5 turbo is a car that is going up in value and is already a collector’s car.  

Erik Comas's Maxi R5 Turbo