The ultimate rally car to have: Renault Turbo, 1 or 2?

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Renault 5 Turbo, for many of us the ultimate rally car. Many of us dreamed about the car or still are dreaming. But which one was the one to have? At the upcoming Bonhams auction in Knokke-Heist, where the Zoute Sale is held, you can choose. Are you going for the Turbo 1 or the Turbo 2?

A two-seater, mid-engined supercar with rear wheel drive, specially built for group B rallying between 1979 and 1986. With the wide-body looks, it certainly gets enough attention.

The engine is a 1.4 litre- overhead-valve engine, with turbo-charger that produces 160 bph and with the weight of just under 1000 kg, it is quite a fast car (certainly in this time).

When the Turbo 1 came out, only 400 of them came on the market (the minimum necessary to get a Group B homologation) and the price was quite high for a Renault. But they were sold out very quickly and the interest for the car was high. Therefore, Renault came with the Turbo 2.

Normally you would expect that the next edition would be even better and faster. They did improve the engine with 10 more bhp, but as the Turbo 1 was very expensive to build, they didn’t improve it that much: they changed the aluminium body parts (doors, roof etc.) for steel ones so the weight went up. Also the dashboard was changed for a basic R5 Alpine Dash and the seats were changed to more regular ones.

When you take a look at the Turbo’s that are offered at the Zoute Sale, you can clearly see the difference in interior. Although both look very good, the Turbo 1 has, in our opinion, seats that should be in any rally car, just wow!

The colours of the Turbo 2 on the other hand are absolutely brilliant, the combination of brown paint and beige interior is a real classic one, that would fit in any collection.

We hope both cars will find a new owner and will be used as well. We believe the Renault 5 Turbo: 1, 2 or Maxi Turbo, is one of the cars that was a collector's item since new and this will continue for a long time. So which one you choose, doesn’t matter; both are just fine!

Words: Jeroen Albada Jelgersma

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