The 100% electric Renault 5 E-Tech is about to arrive in the diamond brand’s dealerships. But let’s come back to its ancestor from 1972, which was also envisaged in the form of a coupe. The proof in images… dating from 1970.
Right now, with the first road tests in the Nice region of its 21st century heir switched to electric mode, the Renault 5 is at the forefront. But we couldn’t help but take a look in the rearview mirror at her famous grandmother, who was in part an inspiration. Indeed, before becoming the Renault 5 which first took over the streets of the capital in January 1972, the company’s revolutionary city car project bore the internal code 122. Several body variations are then considered, but these are not the three and five-door silhouettes – the latter arriving moreover late, once the model is well established in the landscape. It’s more of a small shooting brake treated in the American fashion of the time, with real fake side woodwork and especially that of a coupe.
Inspired by what is happening in the opposite camp with the Peugeot 204, then at its peakthe idea of the coupe was envisaged from the genesis of the R5 by the stylist Gaston Juchet, then head of Renault Automobile styling. This is evidenced by the sketches dating from May 1970, on which the bow remains that of the Renault 5 sedan sold in series – whose lines were born under the pencil of Michel Boué – and is very clearly distinguished in its rear part. Both by a much more inclined window and by a lower part under the tailgate flap that is completely inverted. This variant is called project 122 TS and does not lack dynamism.
When the small coupe project emancipates itself from the R5
Carried away by his creative impulse, the stylist, who would become head of Renault style in 1984, conceived, in August 1970, an even more accomplished versionmore ambitious of the small city coupe with, this time, its own bodywork. A bit like, further up the range, the Renault 15 and Renault 17, technically deriving from the Renault 12 sedan but not sharing any bodywork elements with it. Unfortunately, the two versions of the R5 coupe will not see the light of day. The Renault 5 sedan which had a career from 1972 to 1984, before giving up its place in the range to the Renault Super cinq, did not need to multiply variants to ensure success.
Sources photos : LignesAuto.fr
Mouse in his right hand, graphic palette stylus in his left hand, journalist/designer who has been into automobiles since his early childhood.
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Published on 08/10/2024 at 06:45
