Welcome to the launch of what Renault is referring to as “the world’s first EV mini-supercar”, at the company’s factory in Flins, northwest of Paris. The presentation starts with a walk through the brand’s turbo history, beginning by pointing out that it was Louis Renault who patented the first turbocharger design, in 1902. It’s also a reminder that the turbocharged Renault A442 entered Le Mans in 1975 (and the A442B won in ’78), the 1977 Renault RS01 was the first Formula 1 car with a turbocharged engine and the RS10 was the first turbocharged F1 car to win a Grand Prix, in 1979.
Then we enter the first of four ‘secret rooms’, which contains the 1978 motor show mock-up of the 5 Turbo and a production 5 Turbo, both resplendent in their trademark bright red with contrasting blue interiors (production cars were also available in blue with – you guessed it – red interiors). Including the only slightly less radical 5 Turbo 2 that followed, 4987 of these cars were produced between 1980 and ’84.
Mon dieu, they look good. We gaze adoringly at the Gandini-designed seats and the beefy vented arches, and note the few differences between mock-up and real thing: the most obvious being the wheels, although the mock-up’s paintwork is actually a deeper, metallic red, too. These little rockets weigh 970kg and produce a heady 158bhp from their rear mid-engined 1.4-litre straight-fours. J’adore!
Secret room number two, this one starkly blue after the previous red. In here are four competition versions of the 5 Turbo, two race and two rally. There’s Jean Ragnotti’s 160bhp race car, barely modified from stock. Then the Ragnotti and Thimonier Monte Carlo rally winner, the stunning 350bhp Maxi rally version and the Érik Comas French Supertourisme Championship winner. Formidable!
Time for secret room number three, which of course is no more secret than the previous two really, but who doesn’t enjoy a bit of theatre. Indeed, the single car in here couldn’t be more theatrical, a cartoon interpretation of the Turbo Maxi, complete with strobing lights across the front bumper. This is the 2023 EV Turbo drift concept, now finished in the iconic yellow and white livery of the 1982 Tour de Corse Works cars – although most will know it from its Goodwood Festival of Speed appearance when it wore a more radical livery, complete with purple-tinted windows.
So we’re getting the message here: despite the obvious incongruity of previewing an EV by heralding the cars that achieved extra power by directing exhaust gases through a turbine in order to ram in more air and petrol, Renault is making the most of its sometimes overlooked but often spectacular heritage.
Suitably primed, we enter the fourth and final secret room. The lights are down, dry ice is drifting towards us and there are blue lasers blocking the view. As the lasers part, the lights go up, and here we have the new almost production ready Renault 5 Turbo 3E. It’s quite a thing, a full 2m wide (that’s supercar width) but only 4m long, and looking even beefier than the originals with its bulging arches and proliferation of vents (which are genuine, by the way).
Now you might not like EVs, and that’s fair enough – but give this one just a little more time, because the specification is unusual. The big news is that there are motors in each of the rear wheels, which is one of those innovations that’s been touted around for years but that very few manufacturers have adopted.
We’ll come back to that in a moment. Each motor develops 200kW, so combined they produce the equivalent of 540bhp, which is impressive, and 1300lb ft of torque, which is truly remarkable. And while you’re now expecting to be told that the car weighs over two tonnes, Renault is saying it’s already under 1450kg (3200lb), with further work on the in-wheel motors expected to bring this down to 1400kg. By today’s portly standards, that’s pretty good.
The weight is all low down, too. The chassis is aluminium, with the 70kWh battery sitting low under the cabin between the axle lines, while the body is all lightweight carbon composite. Weight distribution front to rear is 47:53, but how will the extra unsprung weight of those rear in-wheel motors affect the ride quality? The engineers initially say that the wishbones are stronger, the dampers are high quality… but then admit that they’re still working on it.
This is always going to be the issue with in-wheel motors, but the advantages are clear, too. There are fewer moving parts and less weight because there’s no need for driveshafts – but then there is a need for two motors rather than one, so it’s only really comparable with high-power cars such as this that would have two motors anyway. Still, there’s less transmission power loss and more instant torque reaction, so for performance it should work well. It’s a fascinating development, with the unexpected practical advantage of leaving more boot space as well.
How well? The Turbo 3E’s claimed figures are for a sub-3.5-second 0-100km/h (0-62mph) time, under 9.0 seconds to 170km/h (105mph) and a top speed of 270kmh (168mph). That’s supercar territory again.
And no, this Turbo 3E doesn’t look like a supercar – and anyway, we all know how EV supercars are selling at the moment (not well, in case you didn’t actually know). However, Renault already has a hit on its hands with the new regular 5 EV, which seems to have raised interest even to anti-EVers, and the Turbo 3E is very clearly related, despite being mostly different in every detail. The rear lights are among the few shared items, along with bits of the dashboard.
It does share its steering wheel with the new Alpine A290, which is the performance derivative of the Renault 5 EV, complete with the red ‘overtake’ button and a blue button to allow the regenerative braking to be set at each of four levels. The Turbo 3E can also be switched between four driving modes: Snow, Regular, Sport and Race, which also includes a drift-assist function to go with the outsized drift handbrake.
For sportier driving on the track, Race? Well, Renault says that the 5 Turbo 3E will be able to complete several hot laps with a top speed of up to 270km/h, before initiating DC fast charging at up to 350kW, thanks to its 800V architecture. To charge the battery from 15 percent to 80 percent will take a mere 15 minutes in optimal conditions, and a range of 400km (248 miles) is expected.
Only 1980 of these aluminium chassis, carbon-composite-bodied Renault 5 Turbo 3Es will be built, all to high interior and exterior bespoke specifications. Renault designers will be on hand to guide customers through the options, which will include colour schemes inspired by historic liveries such as the original 5 Turbo’s Rouge Grenade, or the yellow, white and black racing livery of the 1982 Tour de Corse rally cars. There is even a ‘gentleman driver’-inspired option of dark green with tan leather interior, which puts a surprisingly restrained spin on such an outrageous machine.
So this is no longer a concept, but a potentially highly collectable performance car that’s almost ready to go into production. Orders open for key markets including Europe, the Middle East, Japan and Australia in the next few weeks. There’s no official price yet, yet its likely to start around £120,000-£140,000.
