Forgotten cars that shouldn't be...

[Cody Forbes]

Like the first Quattros, there are alot of really amazing cars that the world has forgotten outside of a fairly small cult following. Today I rediscovered what I knew in my memory to be a truely outstanding car, and my first experiance driving it was beyond words.

A customer of ours asked us if we would pretty please work on one of his other non-Porsches, and promised it would be worth it, but refused to tell us what it was until it arrived at the shop. We agreed, though we were not terribly enthused about the idea. Then it arrived. A small little cardboard box on wheels..... and on steroids. A black, very very nice condition '84 Renault R5 Turbo. It had been modified, starting with 285mm tires on the rear, plus an aftermarket EFI system. There may be more, but we haven't dug too far yet. I'm going to guess that the boost level is not stock.

The car was in for lack of clutch function. The fluid resovior was empty, so we topped it up and bled the system earlier tonight just so we wouldn't have to push the thing inside again and so we could look for a leak. I decided to take it for a quick run arround the block just to see if what I had heard about these things was true. That ride was an experiance of a lifetime. The car is amazing, beyond description even....and this is comming from somebody who has flogged a Porsche 962, and nearly any other P-car you can think of street or track. The steering is perfect, the brakes are perfect, the handling is outstanding, the seating position is perfect, the control locations and feel are all perfect, the cockpit is laid out perfectly, there is tons of room even for my 6'3" figure, the amount of engine noise is perfect....but best of all is the engine itself. For those that know nothing about this car it is powered by a turbocharged and intercooled inline four displacing 1.4 liters nearly a whole liter smaller then your given 5 cyl Audi and in stock trim produced in the area of 190hp. Couple that with this cars modifications, its 2200lb weight, and the fact that the engine is mid-mounted and you have a masterpiece. If you ever get the change to drive one, take it. I promise all of you that I will own one of these some day. Pictures will be up near the end of next week.

Wheres my MAC you ask? Well I seriously considered that if I sold both of my quattros and came up with some cash I could buy myself an R5 Turbo, but then I remembered how nice it is having a back seat (my only car for 3 years prior to my first 5ktq was a 914).

-Cody Forbes
http://www.5000tq.com
'86 5ktq
'86 5k-t-q -Parts
'86 5k-t-q
'87 5ktq - Fast.