A Blue, Renault 5 Turbo, driving down the "Grand Avenue" at the 2016 London Classic Car Show
The Renault 5 Turbo or R5 Turbo is a sport 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 4987 (turbo 1: 1820 and turbo 2: 3167) R5 Turbos were manufactured during a six-year production run. In response to Lancia's rallying success with the mid-engined Stratos, Renault's Jean Terramorsi, vice-president of production came up with the idea of creating a new sports version of the Renault 5 Alpine supermini. The distinctive new rear bodywork was styled by Marc Deschamps at Bertone, headed by Chief Designer Marcello Gandini. A Renault 5 Alpine was sent to Bertone in October 1977 to be used as a "mannequin." The car's code name was Projet 822. Although the standard Renault 5 has a front-mounted engine, the 5 Turbo featured a mid-mounted 1,397 cc ( L; cu in) Cléon-Fonte with fuel fed by Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection and a Garrett AiResearch T3 turbocharger OHV 2 valves per cylinder Inline-four engine placed behind the driver in mid-body in a modified Renault 5 chassis. In standard form, the engine developed 160 PS (158 hp; 118 kW) at 6000 rpm and maximum torque of 221 N⋅m (163 lb⋅ft) at 3250 rpm. 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 was the rear-wheel drive and rear-mid-engined instead of the normal version's front-wheel drive and front-mounted engine. The engineers creating the Turbo dug deep in the Renault parts bin in order to meet their goals: the rear suspension was derived from that of the rear-engined Renault Alpine A310 V6 while the five-speed manual transmission was the unit from the Renault 30 TX, rotated through 180 degrees. At the time of its launch it was the most powerful production French car.
Size: 5616px × 3607px
Location: ExCeL London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, London, E16 1XL
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -jetronic, 1980s, 2, 4, 5, 160, 1397, 2016, airesearch, avenue, bertone, bosch, car, cc, classic, clé-fonte, cylinder, drive, driving, engine, fuel, gandini, garrett, grand, group, hatchback, homologation, injection, inline-, london, marcello, mid-mounted, ohv, ps, r5, rear-wheel, renault, show, sport, t3, turbo, turbocharger, valves
