Renault R5 Turbo 2 - French Roast

The Turbo 2's sparse, angular dash is a study in period architecture, with its sharp-edged "futuristic" gauge binnacle. The speedometer, tach and water temperature gauges are standard R5 fare, though the boost gauge mounts in the center stack.

Our photo car, which is owned by Sun International, wears a fair amount of aftermarket goodies, including a roll cage, Recaro seats, racing belts, a Momo steering wheel, and a very cool Stack gauge cluster.

The Turbo 2's wheels are unfashionably small in diameter compared with modern sport coupes, and their turbine styling predates today's preferred spoked wheels. What's really interesting about them, however, is their size. The fronts measure 14 3/8 inches in diameter. The rears are 15 3/8 inches. The reason for this is their original Michelin TRX radials.

In the late '70s, to keep their newly designed, new construction radial from being mounted on standard wheels, Michelin used metric-sized wheels. The fronts are 365mm and the rears are 390mm. The design, however, offered no benefits over conventionally sized tires on standard wheels, and was discarded.

In width and aspect ratio, the Turbo's tires were well ahead of their time. The lightly loaded fronts are 55 series, and are 190mm wide, while the rears have the same profile but are 220mm wide. Fortunately, TRX tires are still available for R5 Turbo owners. Unfortunately, they leave the cars saddled with tires that were designed in '80s.

New, the Turbo 2 listed for $22,500, in its standard 160-hp configuration. This was roughly the same price as the Porsche 944 of the same era. Today, old Turbo 2s are worth about $15,000 to $20,000 (unlike old 944s), according to Sun International Racing president Tom Cahalane. The earlier, rarer Turbo 1 models are a bit pricier. Sun still sells parts for the cars through its web site at www.thesunsite.com.

Jerry Fink, proprietor of Pennsylvania turbo tuner Laminar Concepts, owns a pair of Turbo 2s and has worked on many of them for customers. He estimates about 200 of the original 250 Turbo 2s imported to the United States are still on the road, while barely more than a dozen of the original 25 or so Turbo 1s are still in circulation.