If We Buy Enough Renaults They Might Put The Wild 5 Turbo 3E Into Production

Just before Renault unveiled the production version of the R5 EV, it reminded everyone of the historic R5 Turbo with an EV version. New reports suggest that there’s at least one big wig at the French automaker with a big desire to bring the bombastic car to production. That big wig is none other than Renault CEO Luca de Meo.

Speaking to two different mediums on the side lines of the Paris Auto Show, he’s made it clear that he wants to make the Renault 5 Turbo 3E a production vehicle if he can just get the money to do it. DeMeo told Autocar that “The question is if we have the money to do it.” That might not seem very committal but he didn’t stop there.

According to a different statement given to Top Gear, he’s not just baiting the enthusiast community. “I am serious, we have found a technical way of doing something pretty close to the concept. You don’t have a roll bar etc, but we have the base to do it. The question is do we have the money to do it? We don’t have deep, deep pockets,” he explains. “Maybe we do crowdfunding?” he said.

TG rightly points out that he’s very much joking about crowdfunding but ultimately, this is all about cash on hand. Cars focused on enthusiasts aren’t cheap to produce and typically don’t sell as well as those aimed at the general public. The Renault 5 Turbo 3E is certainly the former.

It certainly won’t come with features like GoPros for headlights but if Renault brings this shape to production with anywhere near the 375 hp (280 kW) and 516 lb-ft (700 Nm) of torque that it has as a concept, we feel confident that it’ll be one of the most desirable hot hatches ever built.

As a person who would have an original R5 Turbo 2 over just about any other daily driver, I cannot tell you how hopeful I am that this thing makes it to production. No, it won’t have the rattly, almost diesel-like turbo noises of the original, but it’ll be faster, more exhilarating, and it’ll look just as good at the same time.