With the Ford Mustang wrapping up the US iteration of this series, it’s time to move across the Atlantic to a country that is perhaps not quite so well known for its automotive culture, but one that is still very well represented by some absolutely amazing automotive icons – France.
As I did with the US, I’m offering five suggestions based on my own limited knowledge. You’re most welcome to add some suggestions of your own in comments and the more they’re supported, the more likely it is I’ll add them to the poll.
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Anything sporty made by Renault in the last 30 years
Renault’s most noted early foray into sporting cars was with the Alpine company, which started off using rear-mounted Renault engines in competition vehicles in the 1950s. Renault bought Alpine in the early 1970s, abandoned it in the 1990s, only to release a special Alpine concept earlier this year, which I covered here on the website.
The cars I’m concerned with here cross over some of the Alpine timeline, but they’re Renault-badged and intended to descend from their motorsport heritage in formula 1.
It all started with the Renault 5 Turbo, a mad little tin can with a turbocharged 1400 engine, mid-mounted and capable of producing 160hp to propel a body that weighed just under 1000kg. Whilst the standard Renault 5 was front-wheel drive, the Renault 5 Turbo drove the rear wheels and was a regular sight near the front of the European rally circuit in the early 1980s, just before the Group B cars came along and blew everybody away.
Fast forward to the new millenium and Renault now produce their performance vehicles under the RenaultSport badge. They even make a bunch of them in the old Alpine premises, at Dieppe, in France. The RS Clio has traditionally been the purists choice with it’s dedication to pure, normally aspirated acceleration and light weight. The slightly larger RS Megane uses turbo technology to push the front-wheel drive envelope even further and both the Clio and Megane have been lauded by the motoring press in Europe and Australia as the best hot hatches of the modern era.
Here’s the old 5T being driven, along with the RS Megane R26R from a few years ago.
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