Are these the best turbo Renaults ever?

Welcome, everyone, to a time when turbocharging was a novelty and natural aspiration the norm, not the other way around.

For those of us old enough to remember these halcyon days, even the word ‘turbo’ is enough to transport us back there faster than a Garrett T3 can spool up, but for the rest of you, let’s paint a picture: this was a time when MTV was a music channel and people listened to Phil Collins unironically.

Collins notwithstanding, there was much excellence to be found in the 1980s and 1990s, especially from European car makers. This you know. But did you know how much excellence came from the combination of Frenchmen and forced induction?

Well, that’s what Renault’s 2019 exhibit at the Rétromobile show was there to tell you. Well, that and this story. But we digress. Renault exhibited "legendary cars powered by turbocharged engines,” and the story starts in 1977...

For the Rétromobile exhibit, Renault’s making a pretty big deal out of the turbocharged aspect of its history, but it’s hardly overreaching. Louis Renault patented the concept of supercharging as far back as December 1902. And, as any man with too much hair on his face and too little on his head will tell you, turbocharging is just a further development of supercharging, using exhaust gases instead of a pulley attached to the engine.

OK, so Monsieur Renault invented forced induction. So what? Well, Formula One, that’s what. The very first turbocharged F1 car was the RS01 of 1977, a fearsome thing for the fifteen and a half seconds it could be relied on to keep working. In fact, it earned the name ‘Yellow Teapot’ for the number of times the golden-hued Renault blew its engine and billowed white clouds.

But with patient development, Renault finally began to make its mark with reliable turbocharged power. Within a few years, its naturally aspirated competition had switched to turbocharging, and, in 1979, Renault F1 had its first Grand Prix win with this, the RS10. The RS10’s 1.5-litre, twin-turbo, 12,000rpm V6, in the hands of Jean-Pierre Jabouille, took first place at the French GP, but more than a few eyes were on the wheel-bashing battle for second place between Rene Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve in the Ferrari. Villeneuve won the battle, but you’d have to say that Renault won the war.

If you wanted to figure out just how early on in turbocharging history the Renault 18 Turbo sits, consider this: Renault’s design for the 1.6-litre four-cylinder puts the turbo compressor ahead of the carburettor. The carburettor.

With a Garrett turbo feeding the old school venturi-and-the-jets setup, the 18 Turbo could hit 185km/h, or about 115mph, presumably with a pair of terrified les enfants in the back seats. Hey, it was 1980, after all.
 

Talking about the Renault 5 Turbo is like describing a dream shopping list of ingredients: styling by Bertone, rear drive, five-speed manual, a turbocharged engine from a time when they were for power, not WLTP tests, and a remit to take on none other than rallying gods, Lancia in the WRC.

Or should we say an ability to take on rallying gods? It’s one thing to want results – looking at you, Ford RS200 – and another thing entirely to win the Monte Carlo rally against competition like the Lancia Stratos, Fiat 131 Abarth, Audi Quattro and Ford Escort RS.

Too bad they’re beyond the reach of mere mortals to buy these days…  

OK, here’s where it gets a bit confusing. The 5 Turbo is a mid-engined, rear-drive rally weapon, very loosely based on the original front-engine, front-drive 5. The Renault 5 Alpine Turbo, on the other hand, is a front-engined, front-drive 5 with a turbocharger. There. Cleared that up. Oh, except for the fact that they called it a Gordini over in the UK.

Suitably mystified? Let’s press on. This is a hot hatch that’s been around longer than the venerated VW Golf GTI, and was turbocharged decades before the Germans got around to it in their hot hatch.

Luckily, these can be picked up for the sort of money actual human beings have. For now…

Fuego: Spanish for fire, and French for ‘boxy Eighties coupe that likes to work as often as the fat bloke in A Confederacy of Dunces’. But when turbocharging was applied, and it wasn’t actually en fuego, you had the 1.6T from the Renault 18 to play with and perhaps the most 1980s bodywork this side of a DeLorean DMC-12.

Say what you will about Renault’s numerical numbering system, but it does take away the opportunity for low-brow reliability puns. Unless they called one the 13, we guess.

Anyhoo, this boxy slab of automotive brutalism still managed to butt air out of the way at speeds of up to 115mph and chase down that all-important zero to 62mph dash in nine seconds, thanks to a blistering 105bhp from its 1.4-litre turbo engine.

Oh good grief, it’s gotten confusing again. This is the 5 GT Turbo, the replacement for the 5 Alpine/Gordini Turbo, so it’s a front-engined, front-drive hot hatch with 115bhp to fire you into the middle distance. Something that’s easy enough to decipher is that the little Cinq could crack the metric double tonne – or 124mph over in the land of pints and ounces.

Equally simple is how many Group N rally titles the 5 GT Turbo landed: deux.

The second half of the 1980s was boom time for fast saloons, and Renault wasn’t about to let Mercedes and BMW walk away with the spoils. Enter the 2.0-litre turbo Renault 21, ready to deliver 175bhp and more than 140mph if the mood strikes and the Gendarmes are looking the other way.

Of course, if your name was Jean Ragnotti, you could play with a 430bhp, 4WD version. Then again, if it were, you’d have a lot more trophies on your shelf.

OK, show of hands: who’s heard of the Safrane Biturbo? Be honest, now.

For those of you who haven’t – and don’t feel bad; if grooves get any rarer than the Safrane Biturbo, the World Wildlife Fund gets involved – the Safrane Biturbo is what happens when the 3.0-litre V6 from the Alpine A610 is turbocharged to about 260bhp, hooked up to a manual gearbox and four-wheel drive and crammed into a French luxo-barge. Or, in so many words, absolute Gallic excellence.

So, Top Gearers, which is your favourite and why is it this rarer-than-a-Ferrari Safrane Biturbo?