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Renault 11 Turbo - The compact car under (turbo) pressure

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Created on February 18, 2020

Text:

Daniel Koch

Photos:

Bruno von Rotz

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Bruno von Rotz

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - The turbo at full speed

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - With fog lights

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - With rear spoiler

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Turbo rims

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - A whole pack of Frenchmen

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Also successful in Formula 1

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Turbo lettering also on the steering wheel

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Tidy interior

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Overview of the cockpit

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Clear fittings

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - The turbo lag was almost imperceptible

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Sporty, manual five-speed gearbox

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Bruno von Rotz

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Lots of plastic in the interior

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - well contoured seatsBruno von Rotz

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Renault 11 Turbo (1986) - Proud turbo lettering

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Renault 11 (1981) - The tailgate makes it a practical car

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Renault 11 (1981) - Five-door compact car

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Renault 11 (1981) - Compact three-door car

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Renault 11 (1981) - A well-behaved compact without turbo

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Renault 11 (1981) - No-frills design

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Renault 11 (1981) - Stub rear with flap

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Renault 11 (1981) - Two twin headlights point the way

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Renault 9 Turbo (1985) - Notchback variant

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Renault 11 (1981) - Modern cockpit design

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Renault 11 (1981) - Tidy cockpit

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Renault RS10 (1979) - Jean-Pierre Jabouille ahead of Gilles Villeneuve at the French GP in Dijon

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Renault RS10 (1979) - Jabouille at the Austrian GP in Zeltweg

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Renault RS10 (1979) - Jean-Pierre Jabouille on the home straight at Zandvoort

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Summary

Renault gave the R11 a turbo in 1984 in order to be able to compete with the sporty compact cars. This made it a veritable rival to the Golf GTI & Co, which it outperformed in many disciplines. There may have been various reasons why the competition still seemed to be more successful. This article looks back and shows the R11 Turbo in current and historical pictures.

This article contains the following chapters

Swiss invention?
Compact middle class
Choice of engine
A lot inside on request
Performance boost
Favorable press reviews
Comfortable sports car
The trade press is satisfied
How it drives today

Estimated reading time: 9min

Preview (beginning of the article)

July 1, 1979 is an important date in automotive history. The duel between Gilles Villeneuve in a Ferrari and René Arnoux in a Renault at the French Grand Prix in Dijon is one of the greatest stories ever told in Formula 1; the last three laps of this race are legendary, great cinema, some of the best that motorsport has ever offered. In the face of this great battle, we tend to forget that the then 36-year-old Jean-Pierre Jabouille not only won his first F1 race in Dijon, but also ushered in a new era with his Renault RS10 - the first victory for a Formula 1 racing car with a turbocharger. It was the Swiss Alfred Büchi (1879 - 1959) who first experimented with exhaust gas turbocharging and designed the first functioning engine in 1925. From 1962/63, turbochargers were first used in production vehicles in the USA, in the Oldsmobile Jetfire and the Chevrolet Corvair; in Europe it was the BMW 2002 turbo (1973) and the Porsche 911 turbo (1974). What Nelson Piquet, the first turbo world champion in Formula 1 in 1983, said of his BMW racing car was particularly true of the Porsche: "If the car wasn't completely straight when the power kicked in, it went straight home again". However, no other manufacturer had a more direct connection to the transfer of technology from Formula 1 to series production in the early 1980s than Renault - which was first implemented in the R5 Alpine and the R18 (both from 1980).

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