Owning a Renault 5 Turbo 2

‘You have to forget all the usual rules of driving classic cars and treat a Renault 5 Turbo quite harshly in order to get the best out of it,’ says Oliver Melliard, whose business Melliard of London (melliardoflondon.com) specialises in the French homologation specials, and where this example is currently for sale.

‘They’re fundamentally robust though – the engine is a mass-produced block at heart. But what gives them a sense of fragility is their sensitivity to set-up. With the wrong tyre pressures, for example, their handling can be lethal. The De Carbon dampers suffer with age but they’re rally parts, designed to be swapped at service stops, so they can’t be repaired, and you can’t buy new ones. But it needs them to handle properly, so you need to get the originals re-gassed.

‘The best examples of these cars nowadays come from Germany, where buyers tended to buy them fully-specced with more power and kit.’