R5 Turbo Replica build

[ejk]

Unfortunately I know almost nothing about rims and tyres. I do like the Minilites on the yellow cars. I think they look good on a 5 Turbo road car. I really like the white spoked Speedlines that were used on the maxis and on the philips super production car above. Yet I personally think that they only look good on a competition car with mulit colours (red-white-blue, yellow-white-black, tan-white-black etc). There are some replicas of those around, perhaps also in the sizes you need. On the german forum, someone already made two sets of replicas: http://www.renault5turbo.de/forum/index.php?topic=280.0. There's a reference on the forum to: http://www.comp.co.uk/wheels/wheels.asp?range=RT_0060. They also have the Minilites in different versions.

Cheers.

Erik

 

[GeoffBob]

Thanks Erik. I'm afraid I also like the ML's the best. Pity the largest diameter is 15".

I had a look at those Compomotive RT rims and would definately like to fit a set. I am pretty sure they will work with my colour scheme (and at least they were once used with theR5turbo competition cars, unlike the Quattro style rims I may have to consider using. Unfortunately, one of the problems I have is the fact that I am using BMW E30 running gear. As a result, the distance from hub to hub (particularly across my back axle) differs from the R5turbo. As a result I have to use a rim with a different offset. My 9J Gotti's, for example, have a 2" outer dish, with a 7" inner. If I tried to fit a pair of those 16"x9.5J RT's on the rear I think they'd stick out through the side of the GRP panels! I'll check with compomotive in the UK to see if something can be done about this (they seem to offer their rims in a range of offsets) so maybe I will get lucky, but then there is still the issue of fitting sticky rubber to them!I suspect that I have a better chance of finding super-wide slcks to fit a 16" rim than I do a 15" rim these days. Pity those Compomotive RT's aren't available in 17", that would be nice!

 

[maxi.man]

hoosier 245/45-15 i found sum on the net

 

[GeoffBob]

hoosier 245/45-15 i found sum on the net

Thanks maximan, you're a star!

 

[GeoffBob]

Drat!! I found a local importer of Hoosiers and apparently that 245/45/15 is a drag tyre. The side walls aren't strong enough to handle cornering. Apparently I'm not the only person sitting in this position. Local vintage Porsche owners are also struggling to find anything wider than a 225 to fit on the 15"x9J's on the back of their cars. And so I have gone ahead and ordered those compomotive rims. I'm afraid I'll be running is a set of 245/45/17 tyres on a pair of 17"x8J rims on the rear. It's the best I can do using current and available semislick tyres I'm afraid, unless of course I go for 18" rims. Anyone fancy trying to fit a set of 18" rims on the back of an R5turbo :? I'm not sure it's even possible. And all I wanted was a nice set of fat tyres on a set of 15" ML's

 

[GeoffBob]

Made further progress with the paint work over the past weekend.



I'm still waiting for the new bonnet to arrive so I can fit and paint the nose of the car all in one go. In the mean time I will start applying colour to the rear section. I was think of something along the lines of the following as this will work well with both the current Gotti rims (for road use) and the white compomitives (for track use).

 

[maxi.man]

hey my car is being painted that colour

 

[GeoffBob]

No worries Maximan, mine's a track car so they won't look the same. I'm using the standard T2 bonnet with a maxi bumper with the spot-lights shaved. I had to use the maxi bumper because it was the only one wide enough to wrap around my wider trackwidth, but with it modified it looks a lot like the competition track car bumper. Yellow, white and black has always been my chosen colour scheme, but I have yet to decide exactly how I plan to lay the colours out (except for the roof which is already done). I suspect that I will however do the bonnet entirely in black and the rest similar to the pic above. I also fancy the look of the IMSA GTU "Le car" track car.

Good news is that my new bonnet left France yesterday and my Compomotive rims are also on their way.

 

[GeoffBob]

Oooh Err, where did this lot come from? I'm supposed to be painting my car in the warm winter sunshine and instead I'm freezing my nuts off. So much for my theory that winters on the highveld are dry. This is probably the worst we've had it since I moved here - bloody miserable :cry: . Next winter I plan to fly north with the ducks!

 

[GeoffBob]

Well, the weather cleared up beautifully affording me the opportunity to continue painting various bits on the car.

I have now modified my Maxi5 front bumper, which looked like this,


to look like this


This is because I have no desire to fit spot-lights on the front of my track-car. As stated before, the reason I opted for a Maxi5 bumper in the first place was due to its width and the size of the opening in the front for my intercooler, otherwise I would have opted for a standard R5Turbo bumper. Removing the spot-light housings from the Maxi5 bumper was more of a task than I initially anticipated due to the way in which the the spot-light surrounds stand proud of the bumper facia. Thus, to finish up with the facia slighlty behind the upper lip I had to cut quite a bit of bumper away and rebuild it. I have also incorporated a square cross-member across the top of the bumper, joining the left and right upper lip together, to form a single lip. This is because, in the case of the Maxi5, this middle bit is incorporated into the Maxi5 bonnet, which I will not be using on my car. I plan to paint my bumper yellow with the perimeter/edge in white. With a bit of imagination and a squint it'll look a bit like the IMSA GTU car bumper.

Other news is that my GRP bonnet has arrived in the country and is currently sitting in customs somewhere (probably supporting a ton of other merchandise on top of it). I hope to have it cleared from customs in the next day or so.

 

[GeoffBob]

New Compomotive rims arrived today so am very excited. 2 off 8Jx17ET11 shod with Dunlop DZ03G 245/40/17 semislicks on the rear, and two off 6Jx15ET25 with Dunlop DZ03G 205/50/15 semislicks on the front. Aint they just the bees-knees!

I am soooo chuffed with they way these fit around my Alcon four-pots! And no wheel spacers required, no bumping into the wheel-arches and no rubbing against the cut-down coil-overs!

 

[GeoffBob]

 

[ejk]

nice !

 

[GeoffBob]

Thanks Erik. Further progress ...

I decided to paint blue in place of the intended black. I am note sure why. I am afraid that I am not very imaginative when it comes to paint. Well, at least she now has some. I plan to separate the blue from the yellow with a white pin stripe and will probably put a white square on the door for her number. The running-board/door-sill will also be in white.

 

[GeoffBob]

Yee Haa. Bonnet finally arrived! By the looks of whats left of the packaging it was transported down through Africa on the back of a camel - but the bonnet is, luckily, still intact. Will require the usual preparation work to remove some rough edges, as with all the other GRP bits I have fitted.

I can't believe that this is my final GRP bit!! I have slowly, over the course of two years, imported every single panel for an R5 Turbo. I can only but wonder if it would have been cheaper to bring over a whole 2nd hand R5Turbo in a shipping container.

 

[ejk]

Hey G,

So, no more excuses then, finish the beast.

Not a Maxi bonnet then? Any modifications in mind for this one?

I love what you are doing man. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,
Erik

 

[GeoffBob]

Thanks again Erik!

It was never my intention to build a Maxi since I am building a track car. Problem was, the Maxi front bumper and front wings are the only bits wide enough to wrap around my Maxi sized (BMW E30) front track width. I therefore opted to shave the lights out of the Maxi bumper rather than try and widen a T2 or TDC bumper.

Here she is with the bits just resting in place. I have definitely decided to build my own running boards / sills down the sides. I'll probably make these up from 2mm aluminium sheet.


FYI, the nose of a R5Turbo is roughly 6cm longer than a standard R5. I learned this the hard way: After carefully building my frame with the light mounts/holes in the same place as the R5, I then had to cut them out and pull them 6cm foward so that the lights would line up the the R5T bonnet and wings. I am curious as to how this was achieved on a real R5T. Did Renault Sport cut-and-shut the front light housing 6cm forwards (on the modified 2-door R5 bodies they used), or did they insert some sort of spacer in there to move the light housings 6cm forward? I'd really be interested to see a pic or two of how they did this.

Thanks
Geoff

 

[ejk]

According to the Maxi parts list, the complete headlight units had to be replaced. So you would probably have had to grind off the entire units and weld in new ones.

I can e-mail you the parts list if you want.

Cheers,
Erik

 

[GeoffBob]

No worries Erik, all done, as shown in the above pic. If you look closely you can see the 60mm strip tucked under the bonnet on the inside edge of the left front wing. I simply cut through the front of my chassis and the the 0.8mm mild-steel plate (from which I originally manufactured my inner fenders) and moved the whole lot 60mm forwards. I am so pleased about this as it has given me 60mm more room to locate my intercooler and radiator, which were, in my opinion, too close to the engine.

I did a search of R5T pics on the internet and was interested to see that on some cars the lights had been pushed forward and held in place with what look like box-section "extenders" (for lack of a better description). This basically meant that the original R5 inner fenders were retained. However, in other pics you can clearly see that the inner fenders have been extended forwards, as I have done on my car. On some the extensions appear to be rivoted to the inner fenders and on others they look like entirely new inner fenders were created. I wonder if this is one way to date an R5Turbo? I would guess that the prototype cars and early T1's had handmade light "extenders" in place, while by the time the T2 came along they may have pressed new inner fenders altogether. I would be interested to hear what you have on your car.

 

[r5gordini]

Hi Geoff,

On our T2 there are box section extenders. I don't have a photo right now, but will try to remember to take one!

Andrew