The Renault 5 Turbo is (maybe) back!

Renault boss Luca de Meo has confirmed that the wide-boy R5 TURBO 3E concept car isn’t just a piece of stand candy for the Paris Motor Show, it’s a show of intent.

“I am serious, we have found a technical way of doing something pretty close to the concept. You don’t have a roll bar etc, but we have the base to do it. The question is do we have the money to do it? We don’t have deep, deep pockets,” he explains. “Maybe we do crowd funding?” He’s joking, but we’d chip in.

You can read all the details about the one-off drifter right here. But the basics are this – a carbon-fibre replica of the original Renault 5, avec grande wheel arches, plonked onto a spaceframe chassis and a socking great wing stuck on the back. Two e-motors on the rear axle, 375bhp, 0-62mph in 3.5s, GoPros for headlights and you’re pretty much there. Fair to say we want one quite badly.

De Meo’s vision would be to have it as the halo car for Renault’s retro EV revolution. Focus for the standard electric 5 supermini, on sale in 2024, is to make it as affordable as possible, while the 4 (also on sale in 2024 and partially revealed as the 4ever trophy concept at the Paris show) will be a B segment SUV that sits slightly above the 5 – literally and in price.

De Meo again: “All the big brands have classics in lots of segments, we have the 5, the 4 and the Turbo and Turbo 2, we’re just doing what everybody expects from us. Trying to connect the brand with its roots. We have to leverage our history as an advantage. With the Renault 5 and 4, there are some design codes to help recognise the badge, but really they are nothing to do with the original car. Not one single piece.”