Tag Archives: renault

Space Race

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The mid-’90s were a high watermark for Renault. Their Espace multi-purpose-vehicle was a smash hit, creating an entirely new class of car in Europe that other manufacturers scrambled to copy, whilst on track their V10 Formula 1 engine was winning absolutely everything with Williams and Benetton. And then in 1995, in moment of utter genius, they decided to merge the two…

The result was the Renault Espace F1, a one-off carbon-fibre minivan with a mid-mounted 800bhp V10 F1 engine, a top speed of nearly 200mph, and publicity other manufacturers could only dream of.

This fantastic recreation of Renault’s unhinged MPV is the work of Flickr’s Sergio Batista, and features replica decals, 3D-printed wheels, LED lights, a detailed engine and brick-built suspension, plus – in authentic Espace tradition – space for multiple mini-figures. There’s lots more of the model to see at Sergio’s photostream you can race back to when Renault were on top via the link above.

Rust n’ Dust

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It wasn’t just British and Italian cars in the late-’70s and ’80s that failed to start in the morning and/or dissolved if they got wet. No, the French made some awful cars too, including today’s, the woeful Renault 20.

Sitting at the top of their line-up, there was (much like the aforementioned British and Italian cars) a lot to like about Renault’s executive hatchback, including some innovative engineering that included both crumple zones and side-impact protection.

But none of that mattered when the cars were heroically unreliable, tragically underpowered, and rusted within just a few years of leaving the forecourt, resulting in a resale value of almost nothing at all. Still, there is one Renault 20 we like, the pioneering Turbo 4×4 Dakar, with a 1.6 litre turbocharged rally engine and all-wheel-drive courtesy of the rear axle from a Renault Trafic van.

Constructed by Flickr’s NV Carmocs, this 8-wide replica of the Renault 20 Turbo 4×4 captures the 1982 Dakar-winning car beautifully, thanks in part to a superbly accurate livery and some brilliant photo editing.

There’s much more of NV’s Renault 20 to see at their photostream, and you can head to the desert in 1982 via the link above, where the lack of rain and a whole load of available spare parts were probably sorely missed by every other Renault 20 owner at the time…

Romanian Renault

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Crappy communist cars such as this, this and this weren’t just made out of old Fiats. No, because there was an exception! Dacias were made out of old Renaults. 

Based on the Renault 12, Dacia produced the 1310 from 1979 until 1999, before Renault took over the company from the Romanian state and, well… just continued making it for another seven years. Small revisions to the design were made over that lengthy production run, although all were somewhat ungainly, with the 1980s example pictured here looking particularly tragic.

Still, when you’re part of a communist dictatorship choice is somewhat limited, and thus over two million Dacia 1310s were sold.

This superb replica of the 1310 is the work of previous (but newly named) bloggee blockostalgia, who has done a tremendous job of recreating the humble Romanian people’s car in brick form. Everything opens, there’s a detailed interior and engine bay, and presentation is top shelf. Literally.

There’s lots more of block’s delightful Dacia to see on Flickr via the link above, and if you’re wondering what became of the brand after Renault’s take-over… well they now make the best selling car in all of Europe.

Alpine Past

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Alpine are back from the dead, with new production cars, a re-badged Renault Formula 1 Team, and re-badged Oreca Le Mans Hypercars. Which is nice and all, but they were cooler the first time round. Particularly when they built this; the 1978 Le Mans-winning Renault Alpine A442B.

Only two manufacturers competed for outright victory in ’78, but with the other being Porsche and Alpine’s Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud completing a record distance over the twenty-four hours, the victory was still an immense achievement.

This fantastic Speed Champions recreation of the ’78 race winner comes from Flickr’s SFH_Bricks, whose catalogue of classic Le Mans racers is both extensive and beautifully constructed.

A wonderfully accurate livery adds to the realism (which TLCB Elves like too for some reason…) and you can see more of SFH’s glorious Renault Alpine A442B at his album of the same name via the link above.

Forgotten Fuego

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This slice of ’80s Frenchness is a Renault Fuego, a compact lift-back coupe built from 1980 to 1986 In Europe, and up until 1992 in South America.

Powered by a range of engines from a 1.4 to a 2.2, via 1.6 Turbo (this was the ’80s) and even a 2.1 turbodiesel, the Fuego was the best selling coupe in Europe and the UK at the time, and was the first car to feature steering-wheel-mounted stereo controls, one of the earliest available with remote central locking, and was once the fastest diesel production car in the world, with a top speed of, er… 110mph. It was even marketed in America where, conversely to Europe and the UK, no-one cared.

Despite its success in TLCB’s home market however, such is the rate of attrition of ’80s cars just eighteen Renault Fuegos survive on the UK roads today. Which is rather a shame, so here’s a brick-built homage to the forgotten French coupe, created beautifully in Model Team form by SIM CAMAT of Flickr.

Cunning brickwork, opening doors, a detailed interior, an opening bonnet, and a lifelike engine all feature, and there’s more of SIM’s brilliant Renault Fuego to see at his photostream. Click the link above to blip your key remote, get behind the controls on the steering wheel, and hit a diesely 110mph on a French autoroute.

You Better Bolide It

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Revealed here at The Lego Car Blog as part of the new Technic line-up for 2023, the new 42151 Bugatti Bolide set is not a TLCB favourite, being an expensive officially-licensed version of a car we hadn’t heard of, with limited technical functionality.

But that hasn’t stopped previous bloggee M-Longer, who has used 42151’s 905 pieces to create something rather better.

M_Longer’s fantastic 42151 B-Model, which not only looks far more appealing than the set from which it has been built, appears completely unconstrained by the Bolide’s 905 pieces. In fact the only giveaway to the model’s origins are a few upside-down stickers.

Better yet, the Bolide’s black-and-yellow colour scheme works a treat on this alternate, creating a Formula 1 car reminiscent of those that wore the Renault-Sport livery in the late 2010s.

Working steering and a V6 engine turned by the rear wheels feature, and there’s more to see of M-Longer’s brilliant Bugatti Bolide B-Model at both Bricksafe and Eurobricks, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Stick it to ’em

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The Lego Car Blog regularly chastises LEGO for their increasing and often unnecessary use of stickers in sets. Said sticky pictures have been dubiously deployed to create details that should be constructed from actual LEGO pieces, until that is, they inevitably peel off and you’re left with no details at all. We hate them.

So here’s a creation covered in a veritable butt-ton of stickers…

No, we’re not consistent. But nuno_g_teixeira’s be-stickered recreation of the 1981 Monte Carlo rally-winning Renault 5 Turbo is glorious.

Underneath the beautifully accurate decals, custom 3D-printed wheels, steering wheel and Recaro seats applied by Nuno is Lachlan Cameron’s brilliant Technic Renault 5 Turbo road car that appeared here last month.

Nuno’s fantastic rallyfication of Lachlan’s design replicates the rally-winning Renault in spectacular detail, largely thanks to the incredible period-correct livery of which you can see more at Lachlan’s photostream. Maybe stickers are alright after all…

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.

Torpedo!

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This interesting grey machine is a 1928 Renault CV Torpedo, which somewhat surprisingly is a car we’ve probably all seen before, as it featured in a convoy scene from ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’. A lot of stuff blew up in that movie though, so we’d forgotten it too. Anyway, this neat Lego version comes from Owen Meschter of Flickr, and you can recreate the vintage chase scene in the desert via the link to his photostream above!

High Five

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Renualt’s humble 5 was a shopping-car favourite in the 1980s. And a joke by the 1990s. Now that most have been thrown away though, they are properly cool. Particularly in ‘Turbo’ flavour, from back when a whole model could simply be called ‘Turbo’ and nothing else, as it was clearly the most important bit.

Cue Darren Thew’s wonderful Renault 5 Turbo rally car, in tarmac ‘Tour de Corse’ specification, and sporting some fantastically accurate decals (which the Elves seem to really like too for some reason).

Blending Technic and System parts beautifully, Darren’s Renault 5 includes a detailed interior, complete with roll cage and harnesses, plus a highly accurate dashboard and controls, whilst under the opening hood is superb replica of the 5’s four-cylinder engine, including the famed forced-induction component that the whole car was named after.

It’s a brilliant build and one that’s definitely worth a closer look. Spool up your turbo and head to Corsica in the 1980s by clicking these words, plus here’s a bonus link of the real Renault 5 Turbo Tour de Corse winner in action.

Fuchs with a Magnum

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This is a Fuchs MHL 320 material handler, essentially a full size arcade claw game. It comes from regular bloggee Damian Z. (aka Thietmaier), who has recreated it with absurd realism using all manner of interesting Lego pieces.

The Fuchs is pictured here alongside a Renault Magnum (named after a gun, or an ice cream, or a condom, we’re not sure) hook-lift container truck, which is just as life-like – we particularly like the splendidly battered and rusting scrap metal container it’s carrying.

Each model is beautifully built and presented, and there’s more to see of the Fuchs MHL 320 and the Renault Magnum hook-lift at their respective albums on Flickr. Click the links to take a look.

Gives You Wings

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The 2021 Formula 1 season is about to begin, with the team reveals arriving thick and fast. TLCB – with our finger on the pulse as usual – are bringing you a car from 2011…

Of course what colour sponsorship the teams have this year won’t change the fact that they’ll be fighting for second place, and we’ll be watching Formula-1-driver-cum-irritating-eco-warrior Lewis Hamilton cruise to an 8th World Championship in the dominant Mercedes-AMG.

However it wasn’t always Mercedes-Benz who ruled Formula 1. In fact there have been several teams that have dominated the sport for a period, including Williams (remember that!), McLaren, Ferrari*, and – just before the current AMG-whitewash – Red Bull.

From 2010 to 2014 Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel won four consecutive World Championships, in part due to this car; the fabulous Adrian Newey designed ‘blown diffuser’ RB7, that used exhaust gasses to create downforce even when the engine was coasting. Not bad for a soft drinks company.

This brilliant recreation of the title-winning Red Bull RB7 comes from Noah_L of Flickr, who has not only built and photographed his RB7 absolutely beautifully, he’s endowed it with some of the most realistic (and complicated) decals we’ve ever seen on a Lego model, even down to the ‘Pirelli P Zero’ labels on the tyres.

It’s a wonderfully accurate build, with removable rear bodywork, a highly detailed engine, and spindly ‘suspension’, and there are loads more stunning images to see at Noah’s ‘Red Bull RB7’ album.

Click the link to head to a time before Mercedes-Benz domination, taking the knee, spectator-less venues, and Lewis Hamilton tweeting that we need to do more for the environment from inside his private jet.

*We know the link isn’t to a dominant early 2000s Ferrari, because surprisingly the Archives reveal we’ve never blogged a Scuderia Ferrari from the Schumacher-era. However we will take any opportunity to remind people that Ferrari are scumbags… Here’s the link again.

Forked from Behind

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This is a Renault Magnum, famous for being the squarest object in the known universe. It comes from Damian Z (aka Thietmaier), and whilst it’s excellent, what’s more interesting is the dropside trailer and trailer-mounted forklift behind it.

Such set-ups are commonplace in Europe, with the forklift sometimes cleverly doubling as the rear lights, number plate holder, and bumper of the trailer.

Damian’s forklift is a Moffett M4, and it’s as beautifully built as both the trailer that it rides upon and the truck that pulls it.

There’s lots more to see of Damian’s superbly presented Magnum/Moffett combination at his ‘Renault Magnum AE’ album on Flickr, where further details (including the rather neat pallets and their patio tile cargo) can be found. Click the link above for a good rear forking.

Le Tractor

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With most readers of this shambolic corner of the internet coming from America (despite how often we poke you), many of you will know Renault best for the ‘Le Car’, or the Renault 5 to the rest of the world. A small car in Europe (and a tiny one in the U.S.*), it’s probably where Renault’s strengths lie, and the 5’s replacement – the Clio – is now the best selling B-segment car in Europe.

However Renault don’t just make small cars, they also make tractors and agricultural equipment (plus there are Renault branded trucks too, but confusingly these aren’t produced by Renault at all, rather Volvo Trucks. Which aren’t part of Volvo either…).

Anyway, Renault do make tractors, like this rather neat looking Renault 155 by Flickr’s keko007, complete with a multitude of smooth building techniques and a big red, er… thing, on the back. There’s more to see of keko’s creation at his Renault 155 album on Flickr – click the link above to grow some wine, or whatever it is French tractors are used for.

*The car was the same size of course, it’s the relativity which varies.

Two Trucks Tuesday

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Two Elves returned to TLCB Towers today, each with a red truck, and each hoping for a meal token as reward. Long-standing readers of this impoverished backwater of the internet will know that this usually only leads to one thing, and duly an Elf fight between the two applicants immediately erupted. Fortunately for them both finds are worthy of blogging, so both were patched up, awarded a meal token, and given a red Smartie. It’s nice to be nice sometimes. Anyway, the builds!

First (above) we have Lasse Delueran’s superbly rendered Renault Magnum. Named after a gun… or an ice cream… or a condom… the Magnum had the tallest cabin of any truck in production. We’re not sure why that matters but nevertheless the Magnum had it and it did look quite cool. Lasse’s version includes Power Functions remote control drive and steering, free instructions are available, and there’s more to see here.

Today’s second truck comes from Fuku Saku, and it too is a European ‘cab-over’, coming from rival truck manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. Fuku’s Arocs cab is mounted on an eight-wheel chassis with a tipping dump bucket behind it, and it includes one of the fiddliest, most fragile-looking, and most excellent grilles we’ve seen on model of this size. An extensive image gallery is available to view (demonstrating some really stunning photography too) and you can make the jump by clicking here.