FIRST LOOK： Renault 5 Turbo 3E – Mad 540hp, RWD ‘Mini-Supercar’

Top Gear doesn't design electric cars, but if we did, they'd probably look a little something like this, because this is the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, and while this thing is actually a model, the car itself is not a concept. You can actually order one right now, and it is the maddest production car we've seen in years. In this video, we're going to be telling you the backstory to the car, we're going to be talking about the performance, the design inside and out, we're going to be catching up with the man who designed it himself, and stick around to the end, because I don't think you're going to believe the price. In case you're not a student of bonkers 80s hot hatches, the inspiration comes from the original Renault 5 Turbo launched in 1980, a 160 horsepower, 1.4 turbo, rear-engined rally homologation special designed by none other than Gandini. Famous for its flamboyant interior and even more cartoonish exterior, it was succeeded by the Turbo 2 in 1983, which looked a bit softer and used a few more carryover bits from the standard Renault 5 to keep costs down. Back then, it was unthinkable to give something this unhinged the green light, but today, in this day and age, to give an even madder modern tribute, the go-ahead is, well it's fantastic. So this time around, there's no rally programme, there's no homologation going on, just a CEO, a guy called Luca Di Meo, who's keen to capitalise on the success of the standard Renault 5. That, by the way, is Top Gear's current car of the year. He just wants to produce something that's as exciting and as memorable as possible, and to prove that electric cars can party as well. So here are the headlines, and you might want to strap yourselves in for these because there are some big numbers. It's based on an all-new aluminium platform developed by Alpine engineers, and it's got 540 horsepower. That means it will do 0-60 in under 3.5 seconds, which is faster than a Ferrari F50. It will do 168 miles an hour flat out, and crucially, it's rear-wheel drive, but unusually, that doesn't come from traditional e-motors on the rear axle. There are actually two motors back there, and they're both in-wheel. The downside of in-wheel motors is they increase unsprung mass, mass that isn't moved up and down by the suspension, but the benefits are many. You get a great tech-spec USP, a stonking 4,800 newton-metres of torque, you get even more immediate throttle response than with traditional e-motors, although I'm not sure we needed any more of that from fast EVs. There are also weight and space savings on the rear axle, and you get separate control of each motor, enabling precise torque vectoring, and therefore, sharper handling. So the 70 kilowatt-hour battery sits under the floor, which has a couple of benefits. Number one, you've got a nice low centre of gravity, and number two, that means the handling should be marginally more predictable than the rear-engined original. In terms of range, about 250 miles, although obviously not if you're doing your best Ken Block impression, and charging speeds, it can charge up to 350 kilowatts, thanks to an 800-volt architecture, which is about as fast as it gets, and that means you can charge from 15 to 80 per cent in about 15 minutes, and in terms of overall weight, 1,450 kilograms is the target, which is actually about the same as the standard Renault 5, despite the fact that you've got a boatload more power here. So in terms of power-to-weight, about 372 horsepower per tonne, which puts it in the same ballpark as an Audi R8 V10. Now, you may recall the turbo 3E concept that we actually drove back in 2023. Although based around a Frankenstein version of the original Renault 5, we now know its purpose wasn't just to make Olly Marriage very excited indeed, it was to soften us up to the idea of a rear-wheel drive, tyre-smoking Renault 5. Well, consider us fully softened, but of course, the styling approach here for the production car is quite different. Okay, so let's talk about the styling, and there's quite a lot going on. We're starting at the front because this is, well, it's a spectacular angle, seeing the width of the car, and there's a lot of changes going on at the front here. You'll see these square headlights, very different to the standard R5. They're designed to closer mimic the original R5 turbo, lots of vents and intakes and bits and bobs, LED lights down here. This splitter is designed to channel air in here, and then it comes up and through this huge vent in the bonnet, producing, believe it or not, a little bit of downforce. Downforce in a Renault 5. Never thought I'd see the day. Coming around the side, we have 20-inch wheels, all the bodywork is carbon fibre, by the way. And the dimensions, that's the big story here, isn't it? This car is actually longer than a standard R5, a lot wider, obviously, and it's got a slightly longer wheelbase, and the windscreen has been moved back, so not a lot in common when you start getting the measuring tape out with a standard R5. And when you're here in person and trying to take it in, you can believe it because it looks like a monster. More vents to discuss. Ones here that kind of release the pressure in the front arch, channel air down the side of the car and then into these dual intakes here. So the top one channels air through this massive rear arch and out via a vent next to the rear lights, and this lower one here is to cool the brakes. And if we come round the back, you won't be surprised to hear that there's quite a lot more drama going on. So, roof spoiler. This is just a sort of flush strip on the standard R5, but they've turned it into this rather neat little ducktail spoiler here. Huge diffuser, and I have to say, this is my favourite angle by far, the most cartoonish one because it looks like a standard Renault 5 there that's just been swallowed by something much larger. And if you want an idea of how much wider than the standard car this is, well, that's your rear arch, times that by two, about that. Right, shall we have a look inside? There is no interior on the car we have here, but we have been given pictures and the most important thing to note is it has, among other driving modes, a drift assist function as well as a vertical rally style handbrake for on-demand skids. This thing is going to be lethal in the local supermarket car park. Also note, bucket seats, six-point harnesses, a modified version of the Alpine A290 steering wheel, a roll cage, lots of carbon fibre and alcantara, plus a couple of 10-inch screens. Another big advantage of in-wheel motors and having your battery under the floor is all that lovely boot space, so it's a practical car, apart from the fact that it's strictly a two-seater with no back seats. Which brings us to not one, but two elephants in the room and the first is this car's positioning. You see, Renault is supposed to be the everyday design and tech-led brand and then Alpine has now been hived off as a completely separate, more premium, performance-led brand that sits above Renault. And yet, the halo car, this one right here, of the entire Renault 5 range, is badged a Renault. It seems a little bit counter-intuitive, doesn't it? But then again, what were they supposed to do, put an Alpine badge on a tribute to the original Renault 5 Turbo? Nah, sacrilege. The other elephant is the price. So it's worth mentioning that they will only build 1,980 units, a tribute to the year the original R5 Turbo was launched. Each one is numbered and if you're quick enough, you can choose which number you prefer, shotgun 666, with first deliveries beginning in the first half of 2027. But each car will cost, and these are just ballpark figures for now, between £120,000 and £140,000 and will go to over £200,000 if you customise it to its full potential. Renault claims it has more expressions of interest than cars available, but even so, that's a lot of cash for an electric Renault. Right, time to meet the man who designed this outrageous car, Renault's design director, Gilles Vidal. So Gilles, you've handily set out essentially a kind of a history of the R5 Turbo in kind of three or four rooms here. So I thought it'd be fun. Why don't we start with where it all began in 1980 and then we'll work our way through some of the competition cars, there was the 2023 drift concept car, which we'll get to, and then the new one. But I mean, this car, this is the original, right? Not the Turbo 2, this is the Turbo 1 with the kind of crazier interiors and everything. Do you remember, how old were you, if you don't mind me asking, when this came out? I was eight years old. I was eight years old and I can remember it on the streets and when you would see one on the road or in a street somewhere, it was the most amazing thing you could see. And even like the sports cars of the time were incredible cars, of course, but when you would spot one of those, it was such a spaceship, you know, a competition car on the road. So as a kid, it was like so, it was not often, but it was amazing. I mean, even back then, it must have been crazy that Renault had green-lit, had given the go-ahead to a car this mad, a homologation car, engine in the back. Gandini designed it, is that right? And yeah, the go-forward for something like this is amazing because it was not a small series even, if you compare it to other French brands who made similar things, there was loads of those compared and still they were rare enough, so you would like again be amazed when you spotted one. But yeah, it's an amazing little thing to do and it's still a legend today. And so in the room, we have the early prototype, the original prototype that was presented at first. So at a motor show, I assume? Yeah, exactly. This is the one that people, the first time they saw it and went, no way, they're not Yeah, exactly, exactly, that was it. And so it was actually built on bits of real car and they just put it together super quickly and here we go, let's go to the show and let's just explain that, we'll just do that. It still looks crazy today, it's kind of got like a supercar impact, even if you look at it from the rear, it's such a wild shape, it's like Clio V6, right, it's these unexpected proportions. Yes, and the stance is crazy and they went just this little bit of too much that makes it amazing without being actually too much. So when you first started at Renault, you must have, you know, you look through the back catalogue and you're like, you must be looking at this thing going, one day, one day. Yeah, you always want to do something like this, not even just as a designer's fantasy, but as a clever product to do because in terms of, okay, it's not going to be the biggest business of the company, obviously, but in terms of image and creating a legend and it's interesting to look at the history, actually, and in every era of history, remarkable things, legendary, iconic things are a thing in society. Why wouldn't we, in the current society, not do it? We need it. And you have a CEO who totally gets that. He's like, look, we need to sell cars, we're a business, but we need to lodge in people's memories and tickle their heartstrings. And create legends. Speaking of legends, so these are the competition cars, right? Yes, so a few competition cars, different breeds, you know, and different kind of setups. All of them are amazing, actually, and even the liveries at the time were so strong, especially the L1, the graphic design is just like crazy. Yeah, so speaking of which, obviously, with the new R5 Turbo 3E, customisation is going to be a big part of it, right, so customers can have... Is it these kind of old racing liveries that will inspire you or is it literally they can do whatever they want? Well, actually, a bit of everything. So by default, we can show and propose a few historically inspired liveries. We can do any colour you want, interior, exterior, fabrics, and everything, but we will also propose unlimited, ultimate personalisation through a meeting with creative designers and a work session even, you know, designing the car together in terms of livery. And so then everything will be possible. You want a livery from the future, you want whatever. Yeah, so yeah, it could be graphic and bright and futuristic or it could be a tribute to one of these amazing cars here. I'll tell you what would be fun, a bit further down the line, if we could come in and design the Top Gear's R5 Turbo 3E. Of course. I can't guarantee it's going to be tasteful or in any way good, but we'll have some fun doing it anyway. Oh, for sure. All right, and now we're sort of into the modern era, so this was... Was it... We certainly drove it. I didn't drive it. Olly Marridge had a go in this car, 2023, I think we drove it. Exactly. And what was fascinating is you had a plan at this point. Did you know you were making a production car when you built this? Not at first when we started, but as we were going along the thing and started to test drive the thing, you know, it was becoming clear that there was something to do about it. And again, our big boss, Luca de Mio, he knows what to do. He feels those things. And so he said, okay, let's just do something about it. And so when we started this, we still kept the cabin of the old Turbo that we just saw. So it was just a super modernized, crazy electric version of the Turbo. So we called it Turbo 3, you know, the third generation that never existed, now exists. And then when we said, okay, now we should produce it, we should actually build it. And then we said, okay, it needs to be the R5, the new R5. So the cabin changed a little bit. This is essentially, I mean, it's all new panels, but this is the shape of the original R5. Exactly. The windscreen, the roof, that line, you know, going around the roof with a little wing in the back. So yeah, it's the origin. So at the time, I thought, great concept, well done, hats off for making it actually work. You know, it was a functioning, it is a functioning drift car. But I thought, nice bit of PR for the company, but they'll never make it. That's usually what happens. I apologize for doubting you. And then around the front as well, like, you know, we thought, oh, okay, this is all styled upon the kind of original R5. But actually, once we get through in a minute to the new one, to the production car, stuff like these headlights in the front end have been carried over quite close to this. Yes, we try to keep it as close as possible to this. And it's possible this time around because it's a limited production car, let's put it this way, on which we have a lot of freedom. So it has to be legal. But yet we have total freedom in terms of expressivity, you know, crazy width. And so we said, okay, let's just deliver that. One question. What's with the teddy bear? The teddy bear was, the idea at first, the concept at first was people, when they come next to Ivan Muller, who drove it around, for instance, they will be so scared that maybe they want to hand onto a teddy bear to get reassured. So the teddy bear was in there, and his name is Drifty, actually. Drifty. Drifty the teddy bear. And you can, so when you're too scared, you can grab it, you know, that was the concept. Lovely. But for sure, we can deliver this car with a teddy bear. It's on the options list. Exactly. Ah, so here we are. Here we are. Wow. So yeah, on the front we did keep, it's interesting because there's a little bit of a mix and match of the Drifter we just saw, and the R5, actually it's an R5, it's a current R5 in its craziest version you can think of. So the lights are not the ones of the new R5, they are the ones of the concept we just saw, as well as the whole front. But then the cabin, even though you can recognise what we just saw, is the windscreen and the cabin and the window lines of the current R5, and even the taillights are the ones of the R5. But the platform underneath, it's new, it kind of had to be made bespoke for this car. Yeah, of course, of course. And that's why you sort of had the opportunity to play with the wheelbase. Yeah, exactly. Proportions have changed a little bit, but I think at first sight you can tell it's an R5, obviously, but a crazy one. That must have been fun, actually, because normally when you're designing a performance version of an existing car, you've got all these hard points, right? So, alright, we might be able to make slightly bigger arches, but the wheelbase is fixed and all sorts of things. Here, you kind of had a clean sheet of paper? Yes, almost, yeah, almost, and of course there's a million constraints still, but at a different level, but in terms of a dream briefing for a designer, it's like, oh my god, can we go this far? Are we allowed? This is as good as it gets, Gilles, I'm afraid. And do you remember the moment when Luca de Meo said, look, we're going to do it, it's a green light, we've got to do this? I mean, it was probably when you were showing him this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was amazing. I mean, you can't even believe it almost, you know, it's like, really, did he just say that? He's going to change his mind, I'm sure he is. And he held it, you know, because there's a million reasons not to do it, in fact, in terms of objectivity and it doesn't make sense and can we make a proper business model with something like this? There's a million reasons to quit, but no, everybody held it and it's just like... Tell me about, there must have been some internal wrangling about the positioning, because obviously Alpine sits above Renault and yet this sits above the Alpine A390, so was there a bit of internal talking? Should this be badged on Alpine? Should you be doing it? Does it... Yeah, I know you could wonder, but for me it's quite obvious actually, Renault is at its place properly, Alpine is obviously the sporty brand of the group, of the company, but doing a super performance version of the compact Renault, not a big model, not a bigger model. Historically, it's an interesting thing actually, in French brands globally, performance was made with small cars, with hot hatches, not with big massive cars like other countries would. So it's very legitimate for Renault to do something like this with crazy performance and it's not an issue for Alpine, which is a solid brand dedicated to just that and lightweight and performance and so on. So if Renault does a little crazy amazing product on the side, wherever it might be in terms of level in comparison, it's okay, it's fine, it's just a... It's like an anomaly, it's just a special moment. Yeah, it's an amazing moment for the brand. What about a competition version? I mean, it's very different because, of course, the Alfa E-Turbo was a homologation car for a rally program. It kind of went in the other direction. Is there any universe in which there could be a racing version of this? Well, actually, when we presented the drifter, Lucas said officially in his speech, you know, if in the WRC, if it was coming electric, you know, why not? So I don't know where they are exactly with this at the moment, so there's no intention at the moment. But yeah, he mentioned that at some point. So we have no plan at the moment. So it's a production car first for real people. Maybe a one-make drift series or something. Yeah, that would be a cool idea, actually. We can just propose to clients to do a track day and create custom competitions, whatever. Let's brainstorm about this, actually. That's good. And just finally, on the icons, because Renault is on, and you're on such a roll at the moment with the R5, the R4, the new Twingo is coming along. And of course, this is like the kind of halo. Are there any icons left? What's next in your sketchbook? There's loads. It's funny, actually, Renault is a brand where there's a lot of icons in history. But I don't think we should do it too much either. So for the R5 and the R4, it's relevant. It's a good timing. It feels right. It sounds right. The Twingo is slightly different because it's not so old. The model never actually stopped. So you could say the Twingo 4 is going to be closer to the one, but it's not the same nostalgia, I would say. There's other potential, but I don't think we should do it too much, and it should just make sense. We should decide to do things like this when it's obvious, when it makes sense, when it resonates right. So everything else we do at the moment is just super futuristic, a bit like the emblem concept car. We're pushing really hard into the future. OK, cool. Right. Well, I'm massively excited. Thank you for the walk down memory lane and all the history of the turbo brand. I'm just desperate. First deliveries early, first half of 2027, I think. For clients. Yes, for clients, something like this. So we have a little wait until we can actually drive it. But I did notice through there there's a simulator with the vertical handbrake and everything. So we need to find the guy who switches that computer on and give it a go and have a good drive in it. Yeah. Well, let's go. All right. Let's go. Right. So this is the turbo 3E simulator. This apparently is how the production wheel is going to look. And I know that because it's on a big poster on the wall behind me. We've got the rally style hydraulic handbrake here. And handily, we've got some lines. I'm going to put the headphones on. I'm not ignoring you. It's just I want to hear that sweet e-motor music. Oh, this is quite involved, actually. Is this the first drive? Is this a world exclusive first drive in the turbo 3E? I think it is. Oh, did I nearly crash? Yes, I did. Oh, it's very clever. You can feel the texture of the kerbs when you run over them. Oh, no. Tank slapper. Is the traction control turned on? Oh, that was smooth. Smooth. Oh, that wasn't. This is amazing. I haven't gone off for at least a minute. Look at me. Plenty of feedback through the steering. Let's try a little handbrake turn, shall we? All right. Tip it in, handbrake, and I've snapped immediately sideways. Great. Absolutely great fun. I've got a bit of a feeling the comments section is going to be split on this one between those who absolutely love it, like me, and those who get very angry about the fact that anyone might spend 150 grand plus on an electric Renault. Look, I'm just glad that cars like this that make zero sense to an OEM's finance department or to your own bank manager actually exist. Who said EVs had to be boring, eh?