Road Test
Renault 5 GT Turbo
Test date 26 March 1986
Price as tested £7,710
For Performance, Stability
AgainstConsumption, interior room
It has always been galling - no pun intended - for the largest single French manufacturer to have spent so much time, money, manpower, and publicity in grand prix racing with the turbo engine which it pioneered in Formula 1, and never to have won a World Championship.
The rest of the motor industry has not always tried very hard to hide its smiles, so one cannot help feeling that in spite of its far removal from single-seater motor racing, the Renault 5 GT Turbo is a son of revenge. For this is one of the fastest of all the mainstream hot hatches, whether they are similar capacity turbocharged or much larger volume unblown.
It is 11mph faster than a Golf GTi, and 5mph quicker than an Uno Turbo or an Astra GTE. Its acceleration from 0-60 is equally and most unarguably dominant at over 1sec ahead of the previously most accelerative Strada Abarth, in spite of the Fiat's deliciously rorty twin ohc, double twin-choke Weber, 2-litre mill. You may pay for this with understandably hard fuel consumption, and a range which the cross-country speed of the car makes seem even less generous than it is, but who cares when one has such glorious entertainment for a very reasonable £7,360?
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