Renault R5 Turbo Review

 The Renault R5 Turbo was originally released by Tamiya in 1981 and re-released on the M05Ra chassis which is basically a "jacked up" M05. The Renault is produced as limited edition by Tamiya Special Projects. It was first released on the M05Ra chassis in 2011 and re-released in 2020. Nine years is a bit of a wait. The chassis itself is relatively easy to assemble for the beginner, when following Tamiyas excellent instructions. 

Chassis built with standard kit shocks. Upgrade these as soon as you can.

For the electrics check your local hobby store. Mine was able to offer a servo, battery, charger, transmitter/receiver package. Granted it was a budget package but it got me going.

However, if you are going to run this car there are two things that are musts. 

1. Replace the plastic and brass bushings with bearings. Do this in the construction phase. I replaced them later and you end up almost fully rebuilding the vehicle.

2. Replace the kit shocks with oil filled shocks. This improves the handling of the vehicle no end. I bought Yeah Racing 55mm alloy shock set which were much cheaper and easier to obtain than the Tamiya Hop Ups. They come with 3 sets of springs plus shock oil. These ones I picked up from an ebay store. The guy is based in Australia and provides excellent service. So far all my Renault updates are through him. He is also happy to answer questions.

Yeah Racing shock set.

If you are going to paint the body in its box art finish, be prepared for lots of masking. 

1. You mask up all except the parts to be sprayed black.

2. Peel off everything except what is to be white. Then spray the yellow.

3. Peel off all except the windows masks and spray white.

The only issue is with the rear of the car, the chassis is too narrow. Evidently if you can find TL01 rear suspension arms, you can widen the rear and it just fits better.

Done and finished with painted driver. 

Black painted masked off ready for the yellow.

Completed ready for painting 

As a novice in working with polycarbonate bodies I didn't realise the complexity of painting  multi colours.

So while the chassis is suited to the novice, the body shell isn't.

It does look good when finished. 

Discovering that this is a "Limited Edition" re-release, I bought a after market body and wheels so that the originals stay in pristine condition. Evidently in Tamiya terms this means a small or single production run. This explains why they are now hard to come by and rather pricey. For example the two on eBay are going at $434 US with $99 US postage. Just as well I only run it on my drive so it is not really getting a beating anyway. The chassis is still in excellent condition.

As kit it is an excellent representation of the Renault fun and easy to build and a fun care to drive on gravel or tar.