1985 Renault R5 Turbo2 - Jay Leno’s Garage

[Music] yeah Oh [Applause] they have the civil Jay Leno's Garage you know we're doing an episode on iconic cars of the 80s this is certainly be near the top of the list this is the 1985 Renault r5 turbo - just a legendary car a car that I was just fascinated by because it was a car you couldn't get in America it was basically the Econo box little Renault with their big four similar engine in the back turbocharged this is the car that made me buy my Shogun it's a car we featured on this program it's a little Ford Festiva or Fiesta whichever way you want to say it with he Yamaha v6 engine the back seat I was inspired to build that after reading about this my friend Chuck Beck was building those Shogun's and he told me you know it's just like an r5 turbo I said that's it I'll buy it anyway let's learn about this one this is the car we're featuring today it's owned by our friend Brandon Annenberg from bring a trailer that's his website I'm sure you go on it and I bought a couple of cars off there myself Randy come on and good to see you my friend good to be here thanks thanks for bringing this this is kind of a one of these bucket list things you know if this was unobtainable when I was a kid you know you could get Lamborghinis and Fries but you couldn't get one of these so that's why I wanted one because they weren't available so tell us the story this is a 1985 Renault r5 turbo - like you mentioned now turbo - so there was a turbo one or just there was a first turbo that they released which was in the early 80s that went for the first three years and then this one was a little bit more refined and also homologated for rally right but it's a rally that never happened right was it a class was it discontinued or never actually wreaths tuition what was rally was pretty tumultuous back in that area dude accidents and crazy things and group became and then went and then okay this car came after that and actually could race in the series it was somewhat involved in that but it also so it wasn't a movie not exclusively okay I mentioned before and is a four cylinder and how many leader a 1.4 liter 1.4 liter okay and what is the horsepower just under 200 horsepower okay now the original car this was based around was just a front-wheel drive front engine econo box this bears no resemblance to the car resembles in other words there's verify things might be the same the hatchback might be the same that the hatches and remove from the front engine Sony different entire suspension is different all the fenders are different basically the same engine is the stock car but modified or different different engine as well pulled out of a different different Renault product and probably weighs under three thousand pounds yeah four-speed or five-speed it has a 5-speed manual 5-speed transmission okay very nice a good looking car nice and good car and this is one of the specials that was homologated right this is one of the special racing ones yeah that's correct the real you know the people that are really into the data on these they made 200 that wore homologated for rally which had an aluminum roof the roof is lightweight okay so the original car was steel this is aluminum yep the majority of them had steel roofs only 200 had the aluminum roof option these are the special 8 2 to 1 cars if you really want to get into the Robo I would've are yeah the homologation even for rs200 and the Audi Sport quattro they made sort of a sort of street spec car and that's what this one was it was intended to be on the street but you had to have street cars to be allowed to race in the series now was this what we called in America a grey market that meant there was a time in the 80s and 90s where you were allowed to bring one car one illegal car in legally one time you were allowed one car for the rest of your life so to speak I think you could bring it was this a grey market this was brought in grey market when that was legal yeah they shut that down eventually late 80s or at some point but this came in and in 85 was ordered from the factory by a guy in Southern California who ordered a three of them I believe and he imported them and then he sold them in Southern California so he he figured out some way maybe around that a one-at-a-time room but let me ask him but even in California they didn't allow gray market they didn't read California smog how did it meet how was it able to pass so back then there was a process for Mercedes you saw Mercedes being imported this was more rare but they they brought a few of these in a handful of these and and if they were going elsewhere in America they didn't have smog sort of trouble if you were sending it to Chicago or wherever else but if it was staying in California you had to find some way to get it to pass so they changed yeah they changed different systems on the engine and got it to pass and this one this one had that back in the day which is special and four-wheel disc I imagine yep four-wheel disc brakes and gaudy wheels I don't know if you know these wheels are kind of special oh no I don't know I thought you said gaudy like both maybe both it depends on who you ask but I know I'm gonna make it so these are gangster wheels police is that John Gotti will ya many associations any associations okay well yeah it's it's a nice looking car I mean it's so funny it's not really it doesn't look like a racing car but once you put the flares and I was down when it was the normal sedan it didn't have the flared fenders or any of that it just looked like a little accountable can we open the yeah absolutely the hatch and see what it looks like sure thing you open up the rear hatch okay and underneath these carpeted panels oh I thought those are speakers yeah back in the day I think it had a nice 80s sound system okay that was the aftermarket yeah the getting feature okay that pops out okay and then it comes with this handy tool little handy French tool to open up okay do one of those do that fourth one there we go there you go this guy okay so it's a hot no so what is hot okay yeah cars warm now four more of those all right this is the top cover does that keep it pretty quiet it keeps it recently quite more than I would expect yeah that's right behind your ear this is insulated and there's almost more than noise it's the heat that comes off it right now yeah I'm gonna be careful touching this thing but it takes a tug okay it actually has prop oh I see okay boy not the easiest thing to work on is it boy that all fits it's in there but it does it ache and you've got this metal all the way around here underneath the exhaust yep and this pulls heat for what there's actually a fan that runs in this fender over by this vent oh okay on a timer but after you're done it sucks exhaust heat out of this okay here we go then it just well sure that will look in there wouldn't it yeah yeah and that's what a 1.4 liter 1.4 liter little over 1.4 liter in this spec and it's got the intercooler on the left really about the size of a motorcycle engine hmm and it's pushed way further forward then you might think it's right up against that oh yeah this is almost rear mid-engine more than rear engine that's mean engine I mean it's it's infinity X right nothing's outside of the okay and a transaxle hangs off the back and you can't even if you apply and find the turbo or take you a while mainly because of this heat shield the turbos right in here right okay if you go for it yeah okay and does it have much turbo lag it takes a little while to kick in and then when it comes you you both hear it and you feel it it's yeah yeah yeah and it's an overhead cam 2 valve correct Franklin key we see if the front trunk looks yeah absolutely where the engine used to be opened this one from the back okay and these are air intakes for this is for ventilation inside the cabin inside the cabin yeah for the engine it's all in the rear Bowl this pulls its air from where the hood I'm very free here okay how's it material and it comes here and gotcha yeah okay all right and the tires just held down with essentially rubber bands bungee did yep just sort of bungee not even bolted down no oh I see all right and the interior is uh well very 80s is the way you describe it the French don't like leather seats so much they seem to like the fabric seats don't think quite a lot of cloth this is almost a quarter or so I hear a lot of French cars a lot of either corduroy or some other kind of material like that that's attractive yep nice-looking steering wheel yeah very simple - with the boost gauge in the middle so this would have been obviously a four seater car but now the engine is in the back or the mid mid back I guess you'd say behind the seats and the gas tank somewhere underneath the seats in front of this bulkhead here okay so drop your cigarette and this is as it was one day there's really no modern upgrades on this oh they're not much a little bit with the engine management system you know to run a little bit better with what has been learned in the last thirty years but no even down to the tyres the Pirelli P sevens those are being produced again but they're period exactly kind of how it was back then right right no radio it's gotten see the radio down there that's Becker oh that's yeah just two little speakers in the doors now that's the eighties radio yes sir actually I prefer that just press a button then go to my station not a happier selection yes how are you very would you make the selection again yeah shut up you know I hate that I have to look at a radio to change cuz you know any old car my 51 Hudson I just present buttons yep you know and it goes to say and I always have to what yes what yeah and then the screen goes blank and I have to wait for the thing to go up and down just shut up you know and you have your foil on the wipers and push the blades in they did that for quite a while back in the day they some people added those to think they were hopping up their car you know and I guess this is here because of the new roof isn't it this piece yeah this rubber piece a lot of people comment on that it goes all the way around it scrub around it's soft and yeah I don't know if they did that to actually get any sort of sort of downforce on the top of the roof or if it's just for looks but it's only on the turbos they came with that well maybe it flexes a little bit if your because this obviously acts as an arch and aluminum is not as strong that's true how they how the roof is attached so maybe it maybe maybe it has a little bit of flex to it so the paint doesn't crowd I don't know you know that's so funny a lot of the factories Italy England you know the name of the engineers that built the car and built the motor I don't know it's so much with a lot of the French performance cars I know whether it's they just don't release it you just don't hear that much you know but the German cars you always know you know rough and all those guys you don't hear so much about the French cause maybe I'm wrong so I'll the comments section will tell me that's for sure yeah the French take this car is sort of a point of pride right when I was driving it at Monterey some French family came up and wanted to talk all about it like it yeah it's so iconic leaf wrench from that period that this is sort of one of the most there really are no famous rhinos in America other than this I mean the dough Fein was probably the last great popular renault that was in america i'm not sure when they left they did some other passenger cars in the 80s and stuff but none of it really yeah it had that goofy of the alliance didn't they have that goopy thing with hooked up with Chrysler and I used to give those away on prices right yeah that was it that was a bad day and that went to the loser I'm sorry we didn't win but we have for you an alliance oh yeah they tried to raise those an SCC a then Archer brothers and all those guys they try I don't know if it was successful or not but they never had too many of these racing in the US yeah so this you can see why this became as you said a point of pride and it really is it's really inspired the whole hot hatch revolution because people's how fast see things when it was practical and or reasonably practical or at least looked practical really wasn't bright let's get it on over your seats right but very cool well it's just great well let's put it back together and take it for a ride can we do that yeah great idea let's do it eighty seat belt here we go because it begs the question you won't bring a trailer did you see this on bring a trailer and buy it this was a guy that he mailed us and said hey I got this right now and I want to sell it I've had it forever you saw the story on the far yet a car for over 30 years right and then he said hey I'm thinking hissongk but it doesn't really run and I'm up here in the middle of nowhere of that and what do I do and we're a pretty tight-knit group in the office and so just me it said hey Randy there's a 5 turbo now were you looking for one of these I've been looking around for one of these a little bit you know did you charge the guy he got a free deal he got I went up there and checked it out myself and so how does that work when you own bring a trailer you don't have to bid up did he did you pay the price he was asked not work I did I actually yeah I paid him it's full ass didn't want to cruise in there and whittle it down right right but we don't get to do that very often but yeah but everyone Wow when it's something you really want and there's only one of them or two of them yeah yeah we don't bid on the site against our customers right habit before it goes to the side right right you can maybe grab one of them one of the perks of working eighteen you know that wasn't everything you were told it was it was running at the time but it basically needed everything turned out and I didn't realize that now what do you say everything mechanically in the antenna but we needed an engine was torn down piston you know oh wow everything was to be done and how many miles on it says 41,000 it's that kilometers depth mile it's miles it was converted early I mean it was sold straight to the US and sold to Southern California and they converted to miles right away so that's an accurate figure so you put pistons and everything in it yeah it had to get yeah it was stock or did you modify stay close to stock and the management system for the fuel injection and stuff is slightly upgraded but there's some small internal things you do that you want better than 1985 technology right almost everything else was a tortoise and this doesn't have a hair or anything does it it does not have a scene no no [Music] I can feel one that turbo starts to kick yeah yeah I know you want eliminate turbo lag but I sometimes fire enjoyable you know I've got an old Corvair turbo and which was the first well actually the second turbocharged car but really a first mass-produced one and you got up to about 3,800 this show and it just makes me laugh and I don't know why it's charming now and you learn to sort of deal you know game on it okay put it okay let me put my foot in it going into the corner because I'm I get to the middle corner the turbo will kick in and push me out you know and and you kind of have fun that way with it the other thing I find is that there's no red zone in the tack of the turbo it's orange I guess that just a French thank you it matches the design dinner yeah yeah so you take those on long trips there it has driven yeah I mean a couple hundred miles at a time yeah I'm not a - anything too crazy yet but the engine was just built it's actually still in its original tune to get it to pass emissions in Greek now when you say you had to rebuild it when you got it was the four exams of turbo a lot of people go out and they you know right across run the turbo up to the RPMs and then they shut it off the oil cooks you know sort of bakes in there and and you wind up - that's what shortens the life of the trouble with that the case here when we get back yeah we have to get the leaded you know for the count of 20 or so you right idle and cool down and get the glue and then you can turn it off this is a car that was abused before you got no it wasn't but it was it was owned by the same guy for 31 years yeah when you have a car like this you need to know somebody that can work on it right he wasn't a guy that turned wrenches so he had his guy in LA and then he moved to Nevada to a horse country and there's no guy he has the car and he stopped put miles on it but it was sort of his baby he had said I didn't want to let it go but there was nobody to work on it so he driving around the block once every six months and they did for the next six years before oh yeah and it just kind of everything sort of atrophy all the rubber was brittle and all the few lines the scary part about these cars is all the rubber right when the fuel lines go that right it was about 18 inches from here yes where we're sitting so it wasn't abused but it was it was in a bit of neglect you know the first car I remember sitting bolt upright like this the flat windshield was the BMW 2002tii that car was the revelation I worked at a foreign car dealership as a kid and it was like I mean I'm sipping up so you know usually if you keep it an energy or triumph you can shut up not lying in your back just subtle lying down with your feet forward you know just sit is if I'm sitting in an office chair and going 100 miles an hour was pretty crazy at this car in the US the closest thing we got to this was probably a Volkswagen GTI yeah yeah I think I've heard and obviously they got a lot more in this sort of hot hatch so hi Arena in Europe and all over the world but the US only got a select few so that's why this was and how many did they bill they built a couple thousand of them a few thousand M which is surprising but then there were the homologation version which were sort of the special version like this right right which they only did a few hundred [Music] and that whistle on the turbo yep and quizzes you hear it's been up it doesn't make you smile yeah when they came out you know you got a normal aspect good to higher up the rev range you go once you go past it Sparky you run out of reps yep then all of a sudden with Tara budget 3,000 and 4,000 whoa you got that little kick you know it's kind of fun yeah so many cars are turbocharged now and you don't even notice that it's yeah it's engineered so you don't feel it yeah they managed to get the turbo lag Adam are you in a club for these I'm not no I just got just got this thing sort of on the road not that long ago so I haven't engaged with I think the club used to be really active back in the 80s or 90s but now it's more scattered anymore so yeah I had a good string of German cars for a while and now maybe I'm being a little more yeah very French I perform with the car what kind of mileage it yet yeah the kids does pretty well you know I mean I think he gets up in the 20s ready to drop in on favor here and the other four yeah but I attended like ramping it a little bit yeah it gobbles up my gas all right Lorne yeah push they into the stock on this one on that one yeah they got the city horn at this any horn yeah we present just that lightly a lot to get ball see when you want to pass somebody just do there's a turbo turbo come ahead you know it's not really loud at all it's not obnoxious no try the pleasant actually yep you know it feels like it's three litres or so yeah Torquay down low when you'd expect yeah it is it's more than I expected it is very reminiscent of my Shogun when was last time you had that thing out five two weeks ago okay good lot of fun have you ever sold one of your own cars don't bring a drill I have yeah half dozen or so oh really yep absolutely and you save a fortune I save a little bit but yeah it's the right audience you know the kind of stuff I like is the thing I like about the website it's all enthusiast cars we'd like to keep it interesting here were the other cars we do it is curated yeah and that's a that's a hard thing to do sometimes have to say no to some customers but yeah but you want it to be the good stuff and the stuff that's going to sell won't be a car that you would say no to I mean the main reason when you turn anything away is if somebody just has a really fantasy crazy price oh that's the main reason yeah nobody wants to go to an auction where nothing sells that's not a fun ride right so we make sure that things are going to sell and we regard that closely but yeah things that are just sort of run-of-the-mill things that we get a sketchy fee yeah like paperwork or like a my buddy's uncle has the title and it's from all right you know it's a bank of around the third party exactly exactly we start getting that story yeah yeah that for us that we're like look maybe let's take a break so well I get it all the time I've got a very rare Ford Granada one of the only ones with the wire wheel hub cap yeah okay you know it's not that rare bump and I'm sorry we'll stay under there for how long the auction runs seven days all for every card six to seven days and we're actually just about to release a new thing for some of the higher-end cars we're seven days may feel a little quick we're gonna offer to extend that for those funds is there a reserve over yeah absolutely the majority of the cars on the site must be an awful lot of with sour grades you know I've been on it and that guy was here before him like honey handle ladder do you handle that yeah we I mean we engaged with all of our customers and as you've seen I mean there's a discussion on the yeah on the site but there's also a discussion sometimes people email us or call us and yeah we just want it to be as fair as possible you know when I bought my Falcon I think it was twenty six five and I said the guy okay give me twenty six five okay unfairly going back was nothing fair yes the price I said I made you didn't wanna pay you give Ivan 23 I know by battle is the days before auctions you know I mean you couldn't you get fifty people that wanted the car and one guy felt like he won the lottery in 49 guys email asked about terrible people right shuffle we knew for a long time there needed to be auctioned who came up with the title bring a trailer my buddy and I that I started this site with we still have a really funny email exchange where we were taking around name yeah and there were a bunch of terrible name ideas and then what so a terrible name to remember I mean everything and all this stuff you hear that's so overused in the car world you know like like you know just classics and patinas and yeah all the words you hear on every dealer you probably read somebody classified it's like I did in newspapers back in the day and people would stay right there in the ad if the car wasn't running you know call this boat up bird I can't reiterate in everything classwork so that's where the name came from do you keep dealers out of it no dealers are allowed it's a special kind of dealer that does really well on b8e yeah because you have to be willing to talk about the car right you have to be willing to feel questions and some dealers are mysterious until one answer is and it's a gives you kind of a bad feeling but there's some dealers as you know there's some dealers out there that are great in our legitimate and good stuff and want to talk about it and so a lot of people said that at the beginning oh you better not allow any dealers ever right and I was like well if they're a good dealer on BG it's so transparent that yeah if they'll talk about the car then it's worth having around we want them around yeah so well Randy thank you very much this is one of these bucket list cars you know it's one of the cars that I used to dream about read about in all the magazines especially you know the English in the European magazines then I always wondered what one would be like the fact that's why I bought that Shogun because I thought it was close as to what this would be like and then I was thrilled to find out it had more horsepower but actually the fields about the same this thing is pretty quick and it's just a lot of fun to drive you know it's fun to take what was a slow car and make it into a fast car because again when this started out as just aa connivance and then it became sort of the ultimate French hotrod really good well Randy thank you very much my friend thanks for driving it and haven't got a trail but maybe you'll see one of these on there see you later [Music] [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,173,605

Rating: 4.9266219 out of 5

Keywords: Renault, R5, Turbo2, mid-engine, turbo, french car, Randy Nonnenberg, 80s cars, rally car, WRC, Group B, Gruppe B, aluminum roof, homologation, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: Bng-3aNfqe0

Length: 27min 45sec (1665 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/GiddeeeUp]

Was on holiday backpacking in France and went to the 1984 F1 GP the last time it was held in Dijon. One of the pre races was about 20 Reneault 5 Turbos which was the first time I’d heard or seen these cars. The other pre race was sedan type cars that seemed 10 or more years old. All European cars except a second gen Camaro and you guessed it the Camaro won.

The French GP was good as one of my favorite drivers won.....Niki Lauda and that year he won the drivers championship over his teammate Alain Prost.

Edit: One memorable thing about that GP experience was that most of the race patrons parked their cars in the grass around the track and parked amongst all the mundane vehicles (yup in the grass) was Lamborghini Countach. First one I’d ever seen.

[u/monkeyputz]

The original Hot Hatch! Loved this one since it’s inception.

[u/stocksy]

The Peugeot 205 GTI was the best hot hatch of all time, change my mind.

[u/ritchie70]

My dad had a '79 (or so) LeCar (American name for an R5) and he thought these were so cool. I'm sure he would have bought one if he could have.