Tag Archives: R5

High Five

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It’s not just Chrysler from an earlier post this week that went mad for a bit. The French have a history of going berserk, automotively speaking, with even Renualt – who currently manufacture nothing but boring crossovers – having moments of insanity. This is their best.

The Renault 5 was an excellent city car. Front-wheel-drive, well packaged, safely slow. Not a rally car then. But Renault wanted to go rallying, and thus they took their aforementioned econo-box, removed the engine, turbocharged it, and then put it back in where the rear seats used to be. And let it power the rear wheels instead.

The result was the Renault 5 Turbo, a wild mid-engined super-hatch designed to go rallying, with just under 5,000 across two generations also produced for the road. Road cars made a healthy-for-the-time 160bhp, but in rally trim the R5 Turbo could make almost 400bhp (from just 1.4 litres!), and won the Monte Carlo Rally at the first attempt in 1981.

The spectacular Technic model pictured here is a recreation of the road going R5 Turbo, as built by TLCB Master MOCer Lachlan Cameron (aka Lox Lego). Featuring remote control drive and steering, LED lights, working suspension, opening doors, front trunk and tailgate, and – of course – a mid-mounted engine, Lachlan’s creation captures Renault’s moment of madness brilliantly, and there’s a whole lot more of it to see at his ‘Renault Turbo R5’ album on Flickr.

Click the second link above to make the jump to all the images, and the first to read how Lachlan creates his amazing models like this one.

C3-R2

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This post title refers not to some Star Warsy droid (we’re not Bricknerd), but rather this; the spectacular-looking Citroen C3 ‘Rally2’.

‘Rally2’ is the second tier of the World Rally Championship, with cars a little less powerful (and less expensive) than the WRC top class, and a little closer to production spec.

Confusingly these ‘R2’ cars are classified as ‘R5’ in the regulations, which makes no sense to us at all, but whilst they tend to be a bit slower than the full-fat WRC machines they nevertheless compete on the same stages over the same distances, occasionally beating a few WRC cars in the process.

This is Citroen’s latest ‘Rally2’ entrant, based upon their new C3 road car. Powered by a 1600cc turbocharged engine driving all four wheels, the C3 will face similarly-specified entrants from Skoda, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Ford, and sister-brand DS.

The incredible Lego replica of the C3 R2 pictured here was commissioned by Citroen themselves, coming from Martin Vala, who has recreated their latest ‘Rally2’ car in astonishing detail.

Opening doors reveal a remarkably life-like interior, complete with a full cage, realistic dashboard, pedals, and seats, whilst the superbly replicated exterior is enhanced by some brilliant decals that accurately recreate the real car’s livery.

Martin’s model has been photographed and presented beautifully too, and there’s more of the build to see at his ‘Citroen C3 Rally2’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump to the complete gallery of immaculate images.