PERODUA KENARI
LA-based Legende Automobiles is building our new favourite restomod
There’s nothing wrong with cheap, unpretentious urban transportation. And, give 2000’s Perodua Kenari its due, it was nothing if not very cheap and very unpretentious. Based on the Daihatsu Move kei car, the Kenari was, for its size, quite practical, on account of boasting the precise proportions, and indeed dimensions, of an actual shoebox. It wouldn’t cost you much in fuel, not least because all your family and friends would politely turn down the offer of a lift.
And you didn’t need to worry about a big repair bill in the event of a shunt, mostly because it was impossible to tell which bits had actually been damaged.
All good, then. The only teeny, tiny issue was... oh dear Lord would you just look at it. Wearing an expression that said “I know, I can’t believe they did this to me either, please end my pain”, the Kenari’s woeful, pity inducing face was only matched by its woeful, pity inducing stance and bodywork. Never before has a car looked so sorry for itself. Never before has a car had more reason to look so sorry for itself.
Kenari, incidentally, translates as ‘canary’: a name that, according to Perodua, denoted the “joy and freedom” that imbued this car. The traditional fate of the canary, of course, was being sent to quietly, expendably perish at the bottom of an inky mineshaft. In the case of the Kenari, it’d have been a mercy killing...
I AM LEGEND
“In a world that has become increasingly more digital, we were yearning for a time machine that could transport us back to the analogue Eighties.”
The words of Legende Automobiles as it unveils this, the Turbo 3. It’s a reborn Renault 5 Turbo, and although just a render for now, it may be one of the most cohesive reinventions yet.
It’s designed to reverse some of the cost-cutting measures Renault made for the second-gen Turbo 2, which brought it closer to the price bracket Renaults would usually inhabit. With the blank-cheque culture of restomodding, though, the 5 can be ramped right back up to the max once more.
The source of the turbocharged engine is as yet unspecified, but we’re told it makes 400bhp. The suspension matches that of a 5 Maxi rally car to help make sense of it all, rest assured. The Turbo 3’s body is mostly carbon too and is wider to accommodate larger wheels (16in front, 17in rear), yet the 5’s cartoonish proportions remain intact.
The lights are all LEDs and Legende is adamant it fits the company ethos of “only using technology to improve electrics or materials”. Speaking of materials, check out the interior. Climate control, cupholders and digital dials bring things up to date while wild shapes and colours call back to the first batch of 5 Turbos over 40 years ago.