The French revolution

Necessity indeed is the mother of all inventions, and the Renault 5 Turbo. Renault had to annoyingly road legalise the R5 Turbo in order to homologate the gravel going, rally racing variant in order to play with the other kids over in FIA group 3 and 4 rally racing (let me save you the recap, Quattro turned out to be a bully).

And so, born from not so humble beginnings, 1000 road legal R5 Turbos were churned out. Penned by the legendary Marcello Gandini, the man behind most of Italy's postercars, the R5 Turbo had cartoonish looks to boot, so much so that Bulma drove one in Dragon Ball, and supercar reckoning performance to kill (an actual supercar of the day).

All that extra aluminium bodied, fiberglass over fendered flamboyance did not please the factory accountant though, which is why, the evolution of the R5 Turbo, the Turbo II, ditched the bespokeness. The previous Turbo had an interior Napoleon would approve of, although he wouldn't have liked the gorgeous bertone designed bucket seats.

The Turbo II received a transplanted interior off of a run off the Renault mill R5, which meant the prices dropped, and Renault churned Turbo 2's out until they couldn't take it anymore. The mid-engined supercar drivetrain blueprint did live on later with the Clio V6 Renaultsports.

Nearly 40 years later, I came across an instagram post by Legende Automobiles, and immediately sent it to the group chat.

"They Automobili Amos'd/Singer'd/Alfaholic'd the R5 Turbo!" is what the general consensus was. Restomodding and companies like Singer have become synonymous to an extent where you couldn't even pick out the lie here.

The Legende Automobiles Turbo 3, staying true to the Renault nomenclature retains 100% of the cartoonish appeal of the original R5 Turbo, even the stupefying Bertone buckets.

The interior is nothing short of a Singer DLS makeover, with a digital dash being the only digital substance. The doors retain the ever so 80's Turbo stickers. If Cyberpunk 2077 opted for the R5 Turbo instead of the 911 as the halo car, the Turbo 3 would unquestionably be it.

The original car was propelled by a 1.4-litre Turbocharged inline-4 coyly delivering around 178 turbo lag riddled and galloping horsepowers. The Turbo 3 teased 400 horsepowers while keeping the rest of the details in the dark. Rest assured your youtube homepage will be set on fire after journalists get their hands on it.

Which begs the question; should manufacturers start making retro versions of their cars? Every significant restomod ever has, in this day and age, set the internet and subsequently, the universe of cars on fire.

This year's Goodwood festival of speed saw Kimera Automobili, a brand that I have never, up until a week ago, heard of debut a modern take on the Lancia 037.

The same could be said about Automobili Amos and their take on the Delta Integrale, the Futurista. Even more so, add electric into the mix and you have a futureproof business plan if you're a manufacturer; Totem Automobili's electric Giulia GT.

The only caveat in your bulletproof plan being you'd have to charge a ridiculous amount of money in order to not go under, which is exactly what Singer and the likes are doing. The question then morphs into a matter of exclusivity but let's end here.

Here's a food for thought; Who wouldn't like a brand new, retro rerun of their favourite discontinued car from the past, just like Nike does with Jordans now and then?