The Renault R5 Turbo May Be the Hottest ‘Hot Hatch’ Ever Made

Of all the “hot hatches” ever made, they don’t get much hotter—or more exciting—than the game-changing R5 Turbo. Made from 1980 through 1984 (during the Dark Ages of U.S. safety and emissions regulations), the diminutive French confection was loosely derived from the quotidian Renault 5, a model brought stateside from 1976 through 1983. The latter, rebranded as Renault’s Le Car, was one of the last gasps of French imports that came to America, brilliant in concept but fairly awful in every practical way.

The Renault 5 featured a 1,300 cc inline-four engine that, when de-smogged, wheezed out 51 hp, and had bodywork that rusted fresh from the factory. Its beastly R5 Turbo twin, though, was designed as a rally car in the spirit of . Launched at the Brussels Motor Show in January of 1980, th