Found this beauty on the streets

[gorkabear]

I know that the Renault 5 (aka known as LeCar in North America) has no love across the pond, but we love them here. At the time (late 70s), they were the most competent city car. There was a version, called "Copa" which was sold in Spain as their premium sport version.

Comments

[dan4behr]

R5's were great fun to drive. A bit on the flimsy side, and they didn't hold up to driving in the US, but they had loads of personality. I test drove one somewhere around 1983, the handling took some getting used to, but once you were accustomed to the body lean, it was a blast.
I've never seen one like this shown here. We just had (initially) the 3 door in base or deluxe models and with or without the giant sunroof. I remember when I drove one, they had just launched a 5 door. There weren't many sold of that model at all.

It's been a while, but I have seen one or two of the exotic mid-engine Turbo models. The times I saw one were both at car club gatherings.

[gorkabear]

The Turbo 2 are really wild! This one was called "posh kid killer" because it was the fastest car available at the moment (the other being the non-turbo Fiesta XR2)

[dan4behr]

Sporty? We had sporty!!!!
How could you forget our "Black Beauty" special edition?!?

[gorkabear]

The normal Renault 5 here had a simple 1.1-liter engine, eh=

[badgerpdx]

I almost bought a safety inspected, well running one for $100, but stupid me, I didn't put my bid into the silent auction box. (It was for charity at a French Car show full of fancy cars). It sold for $95. They were a BLAST to drive.

[gorkabear]

Oooh... I'd be in serious trouble with such a decision myself :) Where could I park it?

[gorkabear]

The descendant of the Renault 5 is called Renault Clio. It was in my list when I bought my current car and it was quite boring in 1999. The current version is a bit bland and it's very expensive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Clio#Clio_III_.282006-present.29)

Twingo is a different car altogether. The one released in 1993 is the most space-efficient car ever built (it's a subcompact minivan) although the engine was puny (I rented a couple of them). The current version, and in this I join your line of opinion, is somewhat more classic and more "spiritually" related to the Renault 5 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twingo) . However, there are no competitions based on this car as there used to be with the Renault 5, which is a cult car here - especially the version I photographed

[gorkabear]

Heheh, I can still see quite a lot of Renault 5s (more from the 70s than from the 80s, the Super5 version) but I still have to see a Yugo