Renault 5s ( Non Alfa so brief as poss)

["Tim Hancock" <timhancock@domain.elided>]

Mk One Renault 5 had modified R4 chassis with gearbox up front and
longitudinal engine behind. There was no turbo version with this layout, and
the engines were OHV pushrod. There was the mid engined Alpine version which
was a homologation rally special. I believe this was turbo'd. This was the
model which allowed a friend of mine (Roger Newbould) to build a Rallycross R5
bodied special with a mid mounted Ford BDA engine in which he won the 2wd
British Rallycross title about 12 years ago.

Mk Two Renault 5 looked remarkably similar, but had transverse engines, and
the 4 door version had a longer wheelbase than the 2 door. There was a turbo
version of the 1.4 engine which gave out about 125 bhp and was faster than the
equivalent Peugeot 205 GTI 1.6 (which I had). It did not handle as well as the
Pug, and in general was not as nice a car. Turbo failure was not uncommon as
boy racers did not cool the turbo bearings down by idling the engines after
thrashing them. Funnily enough I was looking at one on an MOT ramp just the
other day.....boy, what a dreadful state it was in...."unsafe at any speed" as
Ralphy said..

Nuff about Renaults except to say that I worked my summer vacation in
1971polishing new Renaults at the Northern Renault distributors in N.Yorkshire
"Crossways Garage" Sadly long gone.

Tim Hancock  164TS Lusso  Boston UK

I can't recall if they did a mid engined version, but the last basic R5s were
produced in Romania so that Renault could get Clio on the market....and still
maintain a bargain basement model as it was pretty popular here.

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