Zut alors!
The BX 4TC. https://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph-spottedykywt/spotted-citroen-bx-4tc/25937
The CX loadmaster. By 'eck.
What else have you found...?
Clio V6.
Take a short hatchback, widen the track and stick a great lump of V6 where the rear seats should be.
Proper bonkers
People carrier
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Not a Renault 4..
R8, before the moniker was knicked.
My friend did Peking-Paris in one of these (his was blue)
Delage 15-S
Peugeot 405 T16 2.0 turbo with 220 bhp and awd.
I love French non-mainstream cars.
I don’t think they’re that mad really, they’re just built to a different brief than the usual Germanic brands and their followers. Where BMW owners might love the balance and handling and they’re usually fairly quick even the cheap ones and look at some french cars and think they don’t have that much grip and the dash isn’t all pointed at me etc, but they’re usually built for comfort, they do make great handling cars but not through rock hard suspension and massive wheels.
Anyway, I’ll punt for the Renault Avantine a ‘coupe’ that’s more like a 2 door Espace that’s fast as long as your on a endlessly long French motorway and not a circuit and very comfortable.
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Renault Spider - the one without the windscreen
Still have a soft spot for our old C15 van. Took us to Switzerland and then '95 Worlds in Germany. World Cup xc in Norway' 96 and then honeymoon in '97 🙂
Sold in 99 at 155k - mot database says it eventually died at 238k in 2008!
Would love a Dangel 4x4 version. Or a Renault 4 Sinpar van.
4x4 2cv conversions
A local Balti owner used to have one of those Renault turbo 2's.
He was also well into his gokart racing.
Seem to remember the Renault didn't last long...
Had a quick meeting with a hedge.
Of all the cars on this thread so far, the only one I really want is that yellow 2CV rally/buggy thing.
(although the Clio and R5 are close seconds)
Clio V6 was a really could have been/should have been car. Performance was really throttled by Renault getting cold feet and not wanting to have the Clio RS outperformed (The V6 was engineered and built by TWR so was politically a bit of a target) so it was limited to 160BHP when it could have easily been putting out 220+ and the chassis was more than capable of taking this.
Before TWR hit the buffers we were working on re-engining a V6 Clio with a spare F1 V8 engine...
This one...
Some lovely crazy French cars here. I owned three XM V6 in the noughties. Amazing smooth ride and from the last one (24v) great performance. I’d have a CX Mk2 CTI tomorrow!
DX safari?
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Well not really mad but I used to see one of these road rallying near Bedford.
Or Matra simca Bagheera
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3 seats across. Just a we touch of french bonkersness
Not sure if the Delage is technically mad but that's a work of art - Espace F1 for madness win. 🙂
A local Balti owner used to have one of those Renault turbo 2’s.
He was also well into his gokart racing.
Seem to remember the Renault didn’t last long…
Had a quick meeting with a hedge.
I understand that was a common fate. 🙁
Epicyclo - thats a brilliant story behind that!
Talbot-Lago T150-C SS
Went round my mate's for a bike ride. His wife has an Uncle who collects cars/wrecks. He was transporting one of them from a lock-up in London down to Devon, and had stopped at my mates.
On the trailer... a Citroen SM. Not terrible condition either. I got a little guided tour around it and the various mechanical oddities it has.
Oh, and a friend of mine has three Renault Estafettes for her street food business.
https://www.myogroup.co.uk/meet-the-gang
I had a blue clio V6 255 - for four weeks before I wrote it off. It was great but not very quick, the turning circle was laughable and the handling was extremely eye opening.
I had a TVR Griffith 500 before I bought it and it made that seem sure footed in the wet!
Great thread this. My local mechanic restores such cars so I have a look around when down there. Has an alpine of some sort and a 5 turbo 2 at the moment.
Cheating a bit:
Obvious DS.
Always wanted one of these:
Clio V6 was a really could have been/should have been car. Performance was really throttled by Renault getting cold feet and not wanting to have the Clio RS outperformed (The V6 was engineered and built by TWR so was politically a bit of a target) so it was limited to 160BHP when it could have easily been putting out 220+ and the chassis was more than capable of taking this.
Before TWR hit the buffers we were working on re-engining a V6 Clio with a spare F1 V8 engine…
eh? The Clio V6 had something like 220hp and the facelift 250hp. The big problem was the 172 was a lot lighter so not much slower.
An Alpine a110 like in Slowoldmans post is one of the cars id buy if i ever got a euromillions win.
The Clio V6 had almost no steering lock. Not enough to drive it fast anyhow.
I'll have a Zoé e-concept if ever they make a road version.
How about the Facel Vega :
https://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/facel-vega/hk500/
And Panhard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panhard_PL_17
and the modern Alpine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_A110_(2017)
There are lots
Those CX Loadrunners were used to transport newspapers around Europe, i remember seeing one on holiday in france probably early 80's, was fascinated by its length and 6 wheels. There's a great article about them here
Make sure you open the newspaper cutting images, zoom in and read them.
Would also love one of those Alpines like Slowoldman posted.
Not really exotic, but we used to have an old Peugeot 504 estate. Was massive. You could sleep in the boot without putting the rear seats down! My dad made a box to fit in there which could hold about 5 sheep to go to market without a trailer! When it got a bit expensive to maintain some old bloke came round and made us an offer we couldn't refuse and took it away. I did wonder what happened to it until about 10 years later I went to work in Tunisia and realised that every single Peugeot 504 ever produced was still alive and well and working as a taxi in North Africa. Quite a sight to behold...
@meeeee, that's a really great article; thanks for posting.
About 30 years ago an old boss of mine had a CS - baby brother to the DS; driving position was almost horizontal, on your back.
I loved the way you could feel and hear the hydraulic suspension adjusting as soon as you got into the car.
Since then I've always been tempted by a DS - but resisted the temptation so far; check out the DS Ursine......
That Renault 5 Turbo ..brought a smile.
I always liked the look of them and had a hankering for one back in the day but one of my buying defaults was that a car should be able to turn a corner ..and those things just didn't !
I was surprised to see a picture posted of one still intact 😁
Twizy F1 anyone..?
Let's not forget the interior of some of these things... My learner car was a BX. Felt like a spaceship...
Thanks @meeeeeeee
Really enjoyed that CX article and scans.
We've barely touched on mad... [Edit: yes we had - missed the pintrest link!]
