Sacre bleu! Or maybe sacre rouge is more appropriate. Here's a car that instills in us the same feelings as Juliette Binoche: desire and fear. It is a 1985 Renault R5 Turbo II for sale on eBay and it looks to be immaculate.
For those of you who don't know about this bit of automotive nirvana, the Renault R5 Turbo II was, essentially, the first shot in a war that became Group B rallying and a highpoint in hot hatchbacks.
The R5 Turbo II might look familiar to the Francophiles among you. It was based on the R5, which carried the unfortunate moniker "Le Car" when Renault still sold cars in the United States. Equally unfortunate was the Le Car's reputation for confirming stereotypes about France's automotive strengths in quality and reliability.
Yet Renault decided to turn the R5 into a winning rally car, a feat not unlike turning the Tata Nano into a winning rally car. But indeed that's what the French l'equipe did 25 years ago, and very well, we might add.
The most notable differences between the two are the huge fender flares and spoilers. The flares covered some seriously wide tires, which in this car's case are wrapped around the optional (and very rare) three-piece Gotti modular wheels. The aero tweaks were there to keep the R5 Turbo II firmly planted at speed, something the car had in quantity.
We rallied against an Renault R5 Turbo II years ago and quickly learned it is not a car to be trifled with. That's because the best mods are, as ever, the mods you can't see. For example, there's no back seat in an R5 Turbo II. It was ditched to make room for the turbocharged engine and transaxle. Said plant cranked out around 225 horses, which doesn't seem like much until you realize that an R5 tips the scales at less then a first-gen Miata. All that power combined with all that lightness combined with an engine in the middle of the car makes the R5 Turbo II turn like a Frisbee. If you could keep it pointed in the right direction, you'd do OK.
The car on offer here (opening bid: $47,500) seems to be very well cared for and entirely original save for the Momo steering wheel and the period correct but non-factory Recaro seats. Maybe that's a blessing, because the original factory seats were two-tone red and blue.
Magnifique!
Photo: eBay
