1979 Renault 5 Gordini – Auction Car of the Week

The French absolutely love a hot hatch. This is the nation that gave us the 205 GTi after all. But here, we’re not looking at a Peugeot. No, instead, we are looking at a car from Renault, one many consider to be the first true French hot hatch. In fact, given it preceded the Golf GTi, it could well be considered as the original hot hatch, but that’s up for debate. Rather than getting bogged down in semantics, let’s instead take a moment to drool over this 1979 Renault 5 Gordini. A hot hatch vision in gold.

First things, um, first. The Renault 5 Gordini should not be confused with the Renault 5 Turbo. The Gordini was a naturally-aspirated 1.4-litre beast that packed 92hp – more than enough to shunt the 5’s minimal mass along the road at pace. The 5 Gordini also boasted lots of delightfully period decals, cool three-slot three-stud alloy wheels, custom interior trim and tweaked suspension. The engine wasn’t just bigger, either. It was an overhead-valve unit with a crossflow cylinder head and hemispherical combustion chambers. It was basically like having half a Hemi Dodge Charger. But better because the 5 Gordini had a five-speed manual transmission, too.

Finally for the history lesson, if you’re about to write us an email saying that this is actually an Alpine, y’wrong. This car is exceptionally rare, as it’s a UK-supplied, right-hand drive version. At the time, Chrysler Europe had the rights to the Alpine name, so for this market, Renault used the Gordini name. There you go, some excellent, nerdy knowledge for you.

This car, finished in dashing gold with contrasting black trim is a stunning little example. It’s in excellent, original specification condition throughout, it comes with pages and pages of history, it’s been magazine featured, it’s been cared for fastidiously and it has only covered 60,000 miles over the course of its life. Make no mistake, this is a very special find indeed. If you want a true automotive icon from the dawn of the hot hatch era, this has to be it.

Of course, as with any classic, there are some caveats to be aware of. Firstly, the car has at some point been re-shelled using a rust-free standard specification car. It was all done properly though, and we would argue that an original shell is better than one that has been stitched together with weld and plates. There is no rust on the car, it’s not really been subjected to salty roads and as such, remains in remarkable condition since the work was done.

The other thing you need to know is that this little 5 Gordini hasn’t been used a great deal in recent years, instead being dry stored. As such, a good service and check over would be required before you take to the streets. But you’d probably do that with any classic, so it’s no big deal really. Plus, doing that work will give you added peace of mind when you do fire it up. And it’s a good way to get to know the car that little bit more.

We love this 1979 Renault 5 Gordini. It’s cheeky, fun, eye-catching and has clearly been looked after very well over the course of its life. If you want a 5, this simply has to be the one. A little gold nugget in a sea of otherwise common hot hatches, if you will.