Renault 5 Turbo 3E<\/a>. The standard R5 has proven a smash hit for Renault, frequently topping the EV charts, and, according to its maker, is one of the best around at converting petrol and diesel car drivers to EV ownership. So it only seemed logical that Renault would revive the legendary Turbo name to serve as the firm\u2019s halo product, the hope being that a wad of nostalgia and retro looks would help reel in the lucrative enthusiast crowd. Of course, scrawling Turbo down the side of a car powered by batteries isn’t necessarily the ideal way to do that, even if it hasn\u2019t stopped Porsche from selling a bazillion Taycans.<\/p>\nOn the flip side, the Turbo 3E isn\u2019t just an R5 with glued on arches. As we discovered at the car\u2019s launch a year ago, the 3E mimics the original\u2019s rear-wheel drive setup with a pair of electric motors housed inside the rear wheels, as opposed to the more conventional inboard layout used by most EVs today, which combined produce a punchy 555hp (up from the 540hp quoted at launch). A torque figure of 3,540lb ft may sound ridiculous, but a reading at the wheel will always be higher than those measured at the axle. Needless to say it\u2019s brisk, with a 0-62mph time taking less than 3.5 seconds, and should comfortably swing its back out without snapping like a short-wheelbase, mid-engined rally special would.<\/p>\n
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Development is still ongoing and first deliveries aren\u2019t expected until next year, but Renault brought a handful of prototypes along to last weekend\u2019s Festival of Speed and offered us a couple of laps from the passenger seat around Goodwood circuit for a taste of what\u2019s to come. To its credit, you can\u2019t knock the Turbo 3E for its looks. My goodness does it have presence, with broad shoulders, a low stance and 20-inch dinner plate wheels filling its box arches. Renault says the length-to-width ratio is close to 2:1, as was the original\u2019s, which not only adds to the R5\u2019s stockiness but it should also lend itself to greater stability. For reference, the last rear-wheel drive Renault that got close to a 2:1 ratio was the Clio V6, and that was famously stable at speed. No, that\u2019s not right\u2026<\/p>\n
Anyway, step inside and you\u2019re treated to beautiful carbon bucket seats with suede-covered padding and Sabelt harnesses. It\u2019s a wonderfully minimal cabin, with a relatively low-slung dash housing the familiar Renault steering wheel and screens. There are buttons for the climate settings and drive controls, but the best bit is the massive, carbon handbrake that sticks up perpendicular to the centre console. It\u2019s a nice nod to the Turbo 3E\u2019s world debut as a carbon-bodied drift machine in 2022, and will require an immense level of will power to suppress the urge to pull off handbrake turn after handbrake turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For all the theatre both inside and out, the Turbo 3E lacks the fizz you get from a performance car that\u2019s about to head off for a flying lap. That\u2019s stating the obvious perhaps, as there\u2019s no engine to fire up, no vibrations to soak up and no sound of a four-pot turbo engine ticking over in the background. It is, granted, a little anticlimactic, because you so desperately want the Turbo 3E\u2019s powertrain to be as loopy as the design – yet, as a passenger, you do at least get a grain of anticipation that the driver could floor it any moment without any prior warning.<\/p>\n
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That punch of acceleration will have to wait, as the test driver decides instead to gradually bring the car up to speed while weaving to get some heat into the tyres. What\u2019s immediately noticeable, mind, is that it\u2019s a surprisingly noisy thing. Not from the powertrain, but rather the wind battering against the upright windscreen and the various aerodynamic flicks dotted around the body. And the faster you go, the more intense the wind noise becomes, so much so that you almost forget that there\u2019s no combustion engine rumbling away behind you. That\u2019s more an indictment of the whisper quiet engines of today, although just because the Turbo 3E is electric doesn’t mean it\u2019s completely devoid of sounds and sensations.<\/p>\n
Goodwood\u2019s short, 2.4-mile course is full of long, sweeping corners, which are punctuated by three proper braking zones. Keen to show off the Turbo 3E\u2019s responsiveness on turn in, the driver aggressively tugs the wheel on corner entry and the nose immediately snaps into action. Obviously, it\u2019s impossible to know what that\u2019s like from behind the wheel when you\u2019re sat on the wrong side, but what is evident is how composed it is in the corners. The Turbo 3E tips the scales at 1,450kg, which may sound beefy for a hatchback but by EV standards it\u2019s positively featherweight. To put that into context, it\u2019s only 50kg heavier than a Phase 2 Clio V6, and while it doesn\u2019t have to lug around an engine, there\u2019s still a 70kWh battery to cope with. That, combined with the bespoke all-aluminium chassis and double-wishbone suspension, makes the Turbo 3E feel surprisingly agile and assured. At least from the passenger seat.<\/p>\n
However, once fully up to speed, the Turbo 3E begins to reveal itself as a bit of a handful. Of course, the driver’s booting it mid-corner to provoke a slide and the assists are off, but it\u2019s more than happy to kick its backside out during the rotation phase as well as on corner exit. The production model will come with a Drift Assist mode, allowing a degree of slip without any nasty surprises, but these two short laps riding shotgun suggest Renault has prioritised fun over outright lap times.<\/p>\n
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Admittedly, it\u2019s difficult to get a solid reading on the damping, partly because Goodwood is short of curbs to clatter over, but officially the cars remain in development and are still some way off production-ready. On some of the faster corners, the rear squats down and rubs against the inside of the massive wheel arches, and our final lap is ultimately curtailed by the underfloor abandoning ship somewhere between Fordwater and St Mary\u2019s. These will doubtless be addressed by the time deliveries get underway next year, but the fact that Renault was willing to let us loose in a car that’s still actively being fettled speaks volumes about its confidence in the Turbo 3E.<\/p>\n
Only, orders are open now and you\u2019ll surely be wondering whether you should add your name to the books. It certainly isn\u2019t cheap at \u00a3140,000, and that\u2019s before you dig into Renault\u2019s extensive options list. And while a 249-mile range is perfectly fine, it\u2019ll gobble through a full battery\u2019s worth of electrons in 15-20 minutes on track – or so Renault\u2019s engineers told us last year. But the price wouldn\u2019t be a turn-off if it came with an engine, and more circuits are installing EV chargers by the day.<\/p>\n
So does the R5 Turbo 3E make me want to turn my back on piston power for good? Of course not. But two short passenger laps were enough to leave me itching to drive it properly. And if it can do that, the Turbo 3E clearly has the core ingredients to be an engaging performance car – with or without a combustion engine.<\/p>\n
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