This little French pocket rocket was fairly different to most
of its competitors. Where the majority of hot hatches use the
concept of a small car and a big engine to liven things up,
Renault decided to use a small car with a small engine and just
throw in a turbocharger. It worked well and this dinky car had
rapid acceleration once the turbo was wound up. With only weighing
853 kg And having a respectable (in its day) 120 bhp this car
sometimes felt like it wanted to take off. The modders of yesterday
always thought it was sensible to tune the R5 up to a zillion
bhp by strapping a turbo onto it that was the size of a horse.
A pair of wings would have been a better mod!
Variations
The later (phase2) cars were the ones everyone remembers, partly
because not many people can remember much earlier, and partly
because they where in production for longer. From the outside
the R5 looked like a jazzed up washing machine with its boxy
body work being jazzed up by plastic wheel arch extensions,
side skirts, big bumpers, front foglights, a small rear spoiler
and a set of five spoke alloy wheels. From the inside it had
the usual eighties futuristic styled dashboard, a couple of
stripey spine hugging seats and a chunky steering wheel and
gear knob.
Driving the R5 turbo is an experience in lots of different ways,
both good and bad. I'll start with the latter. The ride is washboard
firm, although this gives the car a racy feel it does wear on
you after a while. The seating position seems to high up for
a sporty car. It has too much turbo lag for anyone's liking
and driving in traffic can be tiring and often feels like hard
work. They were never the most reliable either, especially the
wide boy zillion bhp tuned ones. On the plus side it did handle
very well. With loads of grip and point and shoot go kart like
manners the R5 GT Turbo was good on a fast twisty road. Only
let down by the turbo lag on a rally like back road where fast
throttle response is more of a must have. However on the twisty
stuff that's easy to read it's pretty impressive, with very
little understeer and hardly any lift off oversteer. It turns
into a corner very sharp and grips well holding the chosen line
perfectly making it very easy to drive at speed.
Over the years the Renault Sport hothatches have evolved and
keep getting better but this, there original pocket rocket,
is still a fun car and a good buy for some retro driving thrills.
Words by Colin Fowler
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