The French make the quirkiest cars

"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel) 02/26/2019 at 13:55 • Filed to: None

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I somehow got from Mr. Regular’s Renault Encore review to Renault 5 racing. A bit of Googling about the Renault 5 TS Championship I had found on youtube led me to the above image.

For a second I thought that it had been converted to RWD but the BAT page claimed the engine layout was stock. Further research showed that Renault felt that just mounting the whole engine and transmission backwards like SAAB did wasn’t quirky enough for them and instead they should just mount the transmission on the same end of the engine as the accessories.

It would appear that the Turbo versions got a more traditional transverse layout.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/26/2019 at 14:05

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Lol it looks like some sort of air compressor or something

AuthiCooper1300 > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/26/2019 at 14:11

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Nope.

All “Renault 5/Le Car” cars (same as the 4, 6, etc) had north-south engines with the gearbox hanging forward. That includes the Renault 5 Alpine and the Alpine Turbo. 5 Alpines were called Gordini in Britain and Copa in Spain, by the way.

I understand auto gearboxes were slightly longer and extremely prone to damage in the event of a front collision, even a minor one.

(Then you had the “5 Turbo” which had a north-south turbocharged 1.4 “four” mated to a Renault A310 gearbox and rear suspension... more or less where the rear seats and boot used to be. Engine firmly planted amidships, of course.)

After the FWD Renault 5 came the Supercinq which did have a front-mounted transverse engine/gearbox in east-west position (same as the Renault 9 and 11 - probably you rememeber the Alliance?). GT Turbo versions obviously kept the same transverse engine/gearbox arrangment.

jimz > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/26/2019 at 14:15

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Auburn used the same layout for the Cord 810/812.

MultiplaOrgasms > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/26/2019 at 14:21

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The layout seen here is typical for older french FWD cars, all first generation Renault 5 were built like that. The second generation, launched in 1984, looked mostly the same but was completely different underneath and was of the more common transverse type. Both generations had Turbo models with the same engine and similar performance, the R5 Alpine Turbo and R5 GT Turbo. If your Turbo R5 does not have a prefix before the “ T urbo” part of its name it might be mid engined, wide body and RWD.

Cé hé sin > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/26/2019 at 16:06

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Renault weren’t was quirky as Citroen who did weird for the sake of it, but nonetheless:

The 14, 16 and 5 had asymmetric wheelbases. The left was longer by about 70mm because the suspension used torsion bars which were mounted one in front of the other.

The 21 had a transverse engine, unless you bought something bigger than the 1.7 in which case it was mounted longitudinally because Renault didn’t want to have to design a stronger transverse gearbox.

The 4 had a dogleg gearchange growing out of the dash

Also, the Citroen Ami.

Also, the Citroen Visa dash:

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > AuthiCooper1300 02/26/2019 at 16:14

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The GT Turbo was the one I was referring to. The Homologation 5 Turbos are completely different beasts.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > MultiplaOrgasms 02/26/2019 at 16:17

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I wish my 5 turbo was mid engine, rwd, and widebody but alas my grandfather and father’s R5s with turbos where the transverse FWD variety.

AuthiCooper1300 > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/26/2019 at 16:39

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I imagined that’s the one you meant.

However, before the S u p e r c i n q GT Turbo there was also this (old “5"):

( http://tech-racingcars.wikidot.com/renault-5-i-alpine-turbo )

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Cé hé sin 02/26/2019 at 18:38

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That light/wiper/turn signal control thingy is wonderful and I love it.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > jimz 02/26/2019 at 18:44

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The Cord actually had accessories on both ends of the engine. It had a belt coming out of the bell housing on the front to drive a water pump and the fan and then another one on the back to drive the generator. 

Cé hé sin > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/26/2019 at 19:21

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It’s an example of what Citroen called the PRN satellite. PRN? No, not what you think. P for pluie , rain, so wipers on top. Next comes route , road, as in signal ling so indicators. On the bottom N for nuit , night, so lights.