**CAR OF THE WEEK! Friday 4/10/12**

McClarenDesign

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Announcing the 35th installment of the Car of the Week series.

A chance for everyone on GTPlanet to get behind the wheel of the same car and give it a thorough going over. The aim is to get people driving what they wouldn't usually drive, or cars that may have been overlooked. They may be great, they may be terrible, but as part of GT5 they deserve discussion right here.

People can show off their amazing photos, trade tuning tips, race one another and review that weeks nominated car. Lap times can be posted, top speeds and acceleration times compared and tips on handling discussed.

We are starting to develop a brilliant bunch of regular contributors but I very much encourage everyone to get involved and have their say. Every week (almost!) a poster will be picked for their contribution in that weeks thread to pick the star car for the following week. Ask anyone that has so far been chosen to pick and I am sure they will tell you what an honor it is! So get involved and it could be you!

Car of the Week - What do YOU think of the car?

So, without further ado, this weeks star car of the week...

Last week, Woodski_427 chose the ugliest green in Gran Turismo for his Cosmo. Not only that, but he thrashed them both enough garner this week's choice of the Car of the Week.

Thus far, we've been fortunate enough to have not tested a bad car. Woodski snaps that streak with reckless abandon, insisting upon this monstrosity before you. Granted, it is personal bias, but I usually hate French cars. They're as useful as a DVD rewinder.

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1980 Renault 5 Turbo

I think I just threw up a little... anyone have any antacids? Anyway, as an added... bonus... Woodski's also thrown in this little number:


1985 Renault 5 Maxi Turbo Rally Car

Go. Convince me that French cars aren't as worthless as I think they are. And try to do it without being killed.
 
I have driven the 5 Turbo in stock form a number of times. It's a very drift happy car despite being relatively low power, although it is quite fun to drive. Can be a little unstable at times. Will dust it off and bring it out of the garage once again.

Agreed though, not the prettiest of cars.
 
Unhinged Bond Villainess Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) makes her escape in an R5 Turbo and parachute pants, persued by Sean Connery on a motorbike in Never Say Never Again:



yay I've finally worked out how to embed youtube videos:dunce:
 
Great, this means I get to practice my (lack of) rally skills...or in other words I get to repeatedly drive off the side of mountains :crazy:
 
MustangManiac
Great, this means I get to practice my (lack of) rally skills...or in other words I get to repeatedly drive off the side of mountains :crazy:

This time, blaming the car is perfectly acceptable.
 
McClarenDesign
And because it's stupid. I have no problem with French people, just hate their cars... except the 2CV.

Really? We nearly had the 2CV.

Somehow I don't think that this weeks car is going to convince you that French cars are s good drive.:lol:
 
Hmmm, now that I have a bit of time on the long weekend, I'll be able to check out the street version. I've driven the rally version in game, and it's a blast but it can be a test of your skills. :scared: Try it out at Toscana...

Have a good one
 
I like this one, and I don't think it's ugly at all.

Had a couple of laps yesterday in the standard version and liked it. Admittedly a bit slippy on the standard comfort softs but try some sport softs and it's great. Some easy wins in the old 400pp seasonals. You could probably manage it on sports hards too i imagine.

Question - if you paint it can you still see the "Turbo" down the side?
 
Question - if you paint it can you still see the "Turbo" down the side?

Yes, but it is subtle:

Renault5Turbo_tune_TrialMountain_3.jpg



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And the 'Turbo' in the rear window is body coloured. Of course you have to change the wheels, as you can't paint the originals.
 
Cheers. I actually found a blue one in the UCD last night and having checked it seems they only come in two colours red and blue.

I did fancy a black one though with the red wheels.

Will try and post some pics later on today.
 
Renault 5 Turbo & 5 Maxi Turbo Rally Car

I must say I like the looks of this one, although I know others hate it. It's very "industrial" and purposeful looking.

The standard 5 Turbo is a bit of a handful on the stock Comfort tyres and it does need some careful throttle control and steering, as you can see Im failing to do here.


As I said in an earlier post this is great fun in the old 400PP seasonals with Sports tyres on, where you can still get it going sideways of you're not careful.


In the even more powerful Maxi Turbo Rally Car it can be a real trial to control, a combination of 2 wheel drive and light weight as well as lots of power means lots of fun on rally tracks and it looks great in the replays too.


As it has over 500PP I did have an idea that I could use it for the 4 hr enduro at Nurburgring, and I did a test lap to see if was manageable on Racing Hards.


But in the end I wasn't quick enough, taking 9:26 to get round and I didn't run the race.

All in all an excellent COTW choice as it's a relatively obscure car which combine very 80s design with turbo power and light weight. I don't think there's much out there like it the moment.

Cheers
 
About a month back we had a shootout in the tuning forum. The "FITT Rally and Street Tuner Challenge by MCH" had us tune a street car, and then its ralley brother. I chose these two cars.

Some liked my Street tune:
---------------------------
Krenkme
Renault 5 Turbo ’80
Eiger Nordwand Short Track - 1:16.006 (Lap 4/5)

What a wonderful experience, thank you kindly for the opportunity of driving this car. Particularly at this venue. Surprisingly supple and easy to manoeuvre through the slower, twisty sections. No drama, no fuss, just brake, coast, wait for it, hit the hammer!!

Things aren't quite so sweet in the higher speed sections. I was able to set some blistering times on the first two sections, but the third inevitably caught me out. Careful throttle control will keep the rear under control, the slightest of lifts can be enough to keep things from going completely Pete Tong. However, as much fun as it is to have the rear skating away at speed, it's not the fastest way round the course.

I was on course to break into the 1:15s on my final lap, but I got a bit excited in the right/left after the tunnel and had to suffer the ignominy of watching my ghost disappear up the track in my rearview mirror :(

All that being said, it'll take something special from the others to beat the joy of driving this car. Thank you, once again...
---------------------------

{Cy}

Krenkme - Renault 5 Turbo '80 – 1:16.172 [/B]
Nice work Krenkme. This is a driver’s tune. Just hints of throttle oversteer if you get on it too hard. It is a really fun ride. No flaws other than what it is competing against.

But my Ralley tune was a different story :lol:

krenkme: I really think krenky is out to kill me. :embarrassed: First it was the Butter Knife at Laguna Seca, the a billion HP 300C, a rocket powered Viper on S3s and now this! :eek: You may want to check the rear tires on it. I think they are mounted sideways! As the French jokes usually go, once it's gone it just gives up. :D I found myself riding the walls home in a few places when I totally mucked it up. If you are very precise with the throttle you can do some pretty cool things around a few of the corners but I'm just not that good.

Krenkme- Renault 5

Rally: 2:25.3
:nervous: :nervous: Nice things to say about this car...ummm...the rear wheelarches have a nice shape...

Sorry I didn't enjoy driving this car at all. The handling is very unpredictable, often with a mind of it's own and outside wheelspin constantly tries to put you into the fence. Stopping distances are terrible, the peaky engine means you suddenly explode into wheelspin exiting slow corners. It actually has more grunt and grip than the Sylvia, but that just means you're going faster when the car whimsically decides to put you into the fence. Driving in fear of this meant a slower laptime than the Sylvia. I know Krenkme is an excellent tuner, so I shudder to think how horrible this car must be in stock form!

So as you an see, this car is a handful... I liked it :dopey:
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Have A Great Day! :dopey:
 
1980 Renault 5 Turbo​

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The numbers from the garage: 150hp/381pp, after an oil change 158hp/387pp and with my mild tune 215hp/427pp. She's blue, she's boxy and she's soooo 1980's :) the numbers from the test track:

.............stock / tuned
1/4 mi....15.726 / 13.807
1.0 mi.....39.632 / 35.395
0 - 60.....07.416 / 05.197
to 100....19.207 / 12.905
max G.....00.630 / 00.850
max spd..135.80 / 134.80

TsukubaCircuit_12.jpg


My best of ten laps at Tsukuba Circuit:
stock / 1:10.732
tuned / 1:02.764
In the A-Spec seasonal #4, a 5 lap event at Tsukuba for 400pp cars, I had to turn down the power on the tuned version to 78.7% for an even 400pp.
stock / P2 at 1:10.871, nearly indentical to best lap.
tuned / P1 at 1:05.857, lossed some time due to traffic here.

Toscana_5.jpg


My best of ten laps at Toscana :
stock / 2:07.485
tuned / 2:03.623
I was a bit surprised that the tuned version made a lap good enough to take a bronze medal (2:05 flat) in the most recent seasonal TT even though it was giving up 123pp to the max allowed.

Toscana_4.jpg


I actually had a lot of fun driving this car, she is quick enough to be fun and quirky enough to add a bit of excitement. The gearing wasn't too tall for the track and is well suited to the power band of the turbo. I think the tall gearing helped here as the turbo boost seemed to roll on more gradual as the revs slowly climbed. With the close ratio box on the tune I had to watch the power band closer, you didn't want it kicking in mid way through a corner. The CS rubber couldn't handle the punishment, but a set of SH took care of that just fine, usually. According to PD all the drive gear in this car is mounted at or near the rear axle, this leads to the main quirk. The front end tended to get very light when you rolled on the gas exiting a corner, no she didn't push out of the corner...she Jumped, about a half a lane! Fortunately this trait is very predictable and you simply need to adjust your driving style to account for it.

Toscana_6.jpg
 
Renault 5 Turbo, 1980 and Maxi Turbo 1985

The rather uninspiring Renault 5 had been around since 1972, including a warmed up Alpine/Gordini version from 1976. The 5 Turbo was a 1980 Group 4 rally car and homologation special road version with a mid-mounted engine and Bertone designed widened stance. Apparently this was in respose the the success of the Stratos, however Audi and four Wheel drive were about to leave Renault's cheese out in the wind.


Renault5Turbo_bl_DeepForest_1.jpg



As usual, there is a dusty collection of R5 turbos in my garage, one in red and several in 'Olympe' blue. In my defence I would have got these for the paint chips! I'm a bit undecided about the looks of this one - it's like some kind of Frankenstein creation - part dreary workhorse, part rally monster. Unsubtle cool in a turn-of-the-decade shoulder pad/severely pleated pants sort of way. One of 'les bleus' from my garage, after rebuilds, yields 167BHP, 970Kg, 395pp.

Trial Mountain then: reasonably quick, the gears are pretty well matched to the turbo giving clean acceleration. Turn-in is sharp, but then the true character of this car is revealed:the back end is very loose of course. In common with many GT5 MR cars it is twitchy and likes to break away, at any point in the cornering process. However, after a few laps it becomes predictable and fun if not the fastest 400pp contender:

Trial Mountain on Comfort Soft: 1:54.070

Compression, not slammed!
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I then went to find a suitable race and hit 400pp Deep Forest in A Spec Challenge 5. The first attempt ended on lap 2 as I bounced of a CRX into the pit wall.

Doh!
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Second attempt was better, but I was struggling to catch the lead Prelude and settled for second place, then lost it on the final corner and managed recover from the spin for a 4th. I think the race sums this car up - good fun but but don't let your guard down.

Don't touch the CRX...don't touch the CRX
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I made a tuned car, but didn't write down the spec:dunce:, it was a fairly modest power increase though (will check). This had custom suspension, 'diff and rear spoiler and Sports Hard in an attempt to calm it down a bit (the grey car in post above). This was a decent drive and Trial Mountain came round in 1:47.5xx.


Next up, the madness of the R5 Maxi Turbo: Renault stuck with the MR R5 as the Group B wars escalated, culminating in this beast. Although it couldn't compete on the loose stuff with the 4WD, they still had some success on tarmac. In my garage I have only one - this doesn't seem to come round very often. After oil change we get 366BHP, 905Kg, 528pp.

already dented
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This car is pretty wild: it takes the characteristics of the road car and multiplies them. Part of the problem is in the power delivery as the turbo kicks in - it is really dificult to manage the throttle. Another issue seems to be, unlike the road version, this is a lot more unpredictable, to the point of being frustrating.

So off with the lead boots, on with the kid gloves, and shod with Sports Hard tyres I battled to get:

Trial Mountain: 1:45.261, Windy Hill: 1:10.127

Windy Hill (Mt ASo custom course), was very difficult as the car is so unsettled; it doesn't handle the bumps and jumps so well. I think some tuning could help, though according to Krenkme's reviews it doesn't seem very tameable. Race tyres could be the answer for those who don't mind.

too much of this
Renault5Maxi_WindyHll_1.jpg



Stupidly I then attempted the latest Toscana TT (dirt). I just found this so hard to keep pointing in the right direction and in the interests of sanity left it after about 5 laps: 1:10.127 - not even a bronze:dunce:


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On the plus side - the rally car looks meaty and the lights are cool:lol:

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This is a fine bit of Gallic madness then. The road car takes a little while to get used to, but is good fun, and tunes up well. The Maxi rally car on the other hand needs the light touch and would take alot of practice and patien...

......aaaarggghhhhh!!!:banghead:!
Renault5Maxi_Toscana_8.jpg
 
I've reviewed both of these. The road version is a lovely thing to drive, but I'm not going to link to the rally car review because I'm happy to admit I was wrong. I hit on it very hard for being impossible to drive normally, but in drifting terms, it's a great car. I have to forgive it a lot for what I said about it, because for a little bit of a kick-about, it is a lovely thing. I ought to write an apology to it, to be honest. Still not great when you're actually racing though...

I understand I was a little late to the call, but oh well.
 
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