R5 GTE

Level 1 User Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 39

The story begins way back when I was a kid...my father bought Renault 5 1.1 TL Prima because we opened a restaurant and my folks needed some little car for transportation of groceries, things for restaurant etc...

Back then, in 1995, I was a boy admiring the supercars, and I remember the car I loved the most was Bugatti EB110, so the little cars didn't quite affect my in my universe of that kind of cars.
But I remember one day I want to one perticular place with my dad, a place nearby our racing circuit (it's a pretty famous racetrack by the way, if you're interested click on the link - http://www.grobnik.com.hr/ ) and in a crossroad before us, there was a Renault 5 GT Turbo, phase 2, probably a racing one, with racing decals, black with bright yellow flares, skirts, rearview mirrors and bumpers...it was by far lower than our little R5, a lot wider and a lot louder...so I asked my dad what kind of Renault is that, and then he told me about that car (he knew a little bit about it since he drove Renault 8 Gordini when he was younger), that it's a turbo and it goes double than ours...he said it can go over 200 km/h and my jaw dropped because I couldn't imagine a small car like Renault 5 could go that fast...

So after that, I started to get interested in Renault sports range, and the fantasies of Bugatti and Ford GT90 were put aside for a moment...I started talking about GT Turbo and I knew that I would like to drive one when I get my licence...couple of years passed, I went to high school,
and I noticed that all the boys that talked about cars and racing were approving me when I said something about GT Turbo...and that made me feel good, knowing that people respect that little piece of metal and don't mock it like they mocked Golf drivers and Golf GTi's...

So, during high school, along the way there was some guys in my class that knew some racers, people with 205 Gutmanns, and GT Turbos winning the hill climb and rally events here, so the love for french sport cars instantly grew...I started to go on the internet, collect pictures of Clio, R5, Maxi, Turbo, Alpine, everything...

In those days, Fast and Furious hitted the cinemas all across my country so the car tuning and styling culture, which was pretty strong years and years before that movie, started to get commercial...not mega popular like today, but it definetly begun to be talked about...

Back then, I was buying Max Power, and started to think about doing the Carisma R5, with 18 inch wheels and jap kit bumpers, wings, neons and all other uneccesasary bull...but I overcame that period, luckily...

So, about GTE...I was working in the restaurant for the summer since high school days...and I remember my neighbour came one day with pearl white (nowdays I know that the color was Blanc Nacre / 168 code ) Renault 5, looking just like a GT Turbo but with GTE badge...it looked almost new, mint, great and I loved it...I watched the car almost every day as he drove around it all day and night long...

And, flash 5 years forward, with me having the drivers licence for 2 years already, while coming home from a night out, driving my parents' Renault 5 (which I converted in the meantime from 1.1 48 hp to 1.4 72 hp) I noticed that same GTE parked aside the local road...
It wouldn't be strange, but I noticed that same sight few weeks later...so the car is either abandoned, or broken and wainting for towing...finally, the car was towed back to my neighbourhood...so one day on my work, I asked one friend if he has his number...and he had it...so...I called the GTE owner and asked what's wrong with the car...he said he's selling it...and I was "OK, I'm buying it"...

After he showed me the car, washed it and took the music out, we settled for a price of 400 â‚¬. The engine was bad and he said he has no plan to repair it...it was on Friday, 13.08.2004, two days after my birthday...and on Friday the 13th...

And, finally (the pictures part), the car came home...

Bumper was skimmed badly, but other than that, the body of the car was pretty good looking and most importantly, never crashed...

I even got this nice looking (and sounding) tube Smile

So, since I some mechanical experiance before, with a help of my friend, one month later when the summer was over and the tourists went home, I got under the car...the plan was to change the faulty fuel pump and drive, but when we listened to the car carefully, we found out that the plain bearings were rattling like crazy...

I don't have a proper garage at home so I was forced to improvise...

After the bearings were out...we laughed a bit Smile

Since the bearings were that bad, we had no choice but to take the engine out...and we did it, with no garage and with lots of imagination...

This was the idea, to use my balcony for hook-up Smile

...and we made preparation for taking the lump out, disconnected everything needed and more Smile

The other day, everything was set...

...so we tied everything up...to my mother's Clio...

...the allmighty Clio 1.9D was puffing in neutral, waintg for a go...

...and that's it, job's done

...so the blue R5 was probed to take that engine to one mechanic for a overhaul...

And that wrapped up the winter part as far as the GTE goes, I got the call for the army so for another half of year my car was just sitting at home, engineless, waiting for a little bit of care...

So, when the May came, I decided to make my car run...I knew that I will have to work at the restaurant for whole summer season, so I decided to let the car to the professionals that I knew, even though as the story went, I found out that some of those proffesionals weren't that proffesional after all...

Anyway, the plan for a car was roughly sketched...I wanted it standartd from outside with no aftermarket parts on car's body, clean euro look, 15" wheels and that was it.

I started to look for the right set of wheels, but I also was in search for something I can get quick, since I thought that it would be relatively quick job and that the car was bound to drive soon...eventually I was wrong...

Wheels were the only thing I wanted to change on car's outside appereance, so I went for a new set, but I was having a hard time choosing the right ones...I wanted something between racing stance and euro style...so in the process of choosing the right set of wheels, I was torn between 7 spoke styles like Wolrace Urban Racer, Civic Type R replica, Dotz Zandvoort or MAK Fiorano, multispoke racers like Superturismo WRC or Speedline Turini, or something deep dished...like Ronal Turbo. And as you can see, I used Photoshop to help me...

I made my first mistake on choosing my very first set of wheels, since I chose Dotz Zandvoort...on the pictures, they were truly looking great, probably because of 17" model picture with different ET then I needed and a bit of Photoshop...they looked hyper silver, but in reality it was far from hyper...since I was working a lot, I give the cash to my friend and he went to buy them in a shop 150 km from my town...

Meanwhile, another friend brought me Honda CRX seats, which I plan on retrimming but I don't know the color combination...anyway, the seats choice came from simple fact that all Renault Sport cars (and a lot of others) go for Recaro seats, and the aftermarket ones are dead pricey,
so this cheap option was looking pretty nice solution for me...I like the way they look and feel, so I said why not, second hand for 100â‚¬, pair. When the wheels came, I was dissapointed...as soon as I took them out of the box I knew that they'll never see my car from close...they were looking so...plain, boring, and the finish was not hyper silver, it was more like spray can silver...they were a miss and the next day I called the shop on returning them, and since I didn't even open the other box, they said ok.

So I took a day off, went there and returned the Dotz's, and looked aroud the shop for MAK Fiorano, that were my second option...and they were cheaper then Dotz, so I changed them for MAK's, and few euros that I've saved I spent on Momo Grand Prix pedals...

More like it, the color I wanted and (almost) the design I wanted...

And few days after I got the wheels, a friend of mine sold me 4 brand new Toyo's T1R in 195/50 15, but after I read on the internet that the 45 profile is the right one for GTT (so that means also for the GTE) I sold them quickly for market price and bought brand new Good Year Eagle F1 GDS3 195/45 15 for very cheap...

Meanwhile, the car was in the body shop...a guy that worked on my car was a good craftsman, and he liked the GTT very much, so he was happy to do the job for me...he even gave me a pair of brand new rear shocks for my car, since he had it in the garage for a project that was never finished...

Meantime, I got this contact of a guy who has some parts for GTT, since I needed new driveshafts, windows and fuel pump.I bought the shafts, but the other stuff he overpriced, and since I'm more into bargain hunting
then into being a 100% plonker, I didn't buy it...a second hand fuel pump and back windows for 300 â‚¬...

Two days after, the car was towed to another body shop for respray...

I had figure out what color do I want...when I washed the car, original Blanc Nacre looked very nice, but one thing that I really didn't like is the brown/yellow base of the color, so even it had pearl effect, it looked like it was dirty. So I had some shades in mind, and all from Renault Sport department...liquid yellow, titanium grey or pearl black...

And then, one day as I was going home from my girlfriend, I saw 147 GTA in front of me...it was one of my favourite cars in my country, because it had Novitec compressor and suspension, 18" wheels, but standartd GTA from outside, and a figure of 350 HP at the wheels...and I remember, it was a cloudy day, the GTA passed in front of my slowly, the sound was really something amazing even at low rpm's, and I stared at it because it looked perfect, in my opinion the perfect pearl white color, and I decided - I want that color on my GTE.

The next day, I visited the color shop. They had the Max Meyer range, and from the Alfa Romeo spy sheets they showed me, I didn't find the color from GTA...I got the color code from the internet, but they didn't have that code in Max Meyer range...the other color shop that held Auto Color also didn't have that code, so I phoned Alfa Romeo representative and asked if they could sell me that color, and they said no problem. They said that the price is 10â‚¬ per bottle. I asked them what kind of bottle is that, and they said it was a small bottle, like a corrector,
for fixing small scratches on the car. I said I needed 3-4 kilos, and they said that they don't sell that color.

I also went to see how the car was, and it was pretty close for spraying so I had to make my decision already...

After calling few numbers, I found out that Standox and PPG are the only manufacturers that mix that color and have them in the catalogue.

That day, a guy from body shop called me and said that the car will be ready for respray soon, and told me to come so we can arrange the details, and most importantly, the color...

And I took another day off, and went there...and I saw a Standox sign on the shop, so I said to myself "ok, that's it, GTA color"...we went inside and looked in the catalogue, but the color wasn't there...and then he put in the new Standox catalogue on CD ROM, and we found it, since the color is new and not printed in the older catalogues...

So there it was, a mixture for that color, code, name and price...I must admit it was more expensive then the other standard colors, but since it was used only on 147 GTA I was ready to pay the price...and the decision was made...Bianco Iridiscente

Since I was buying new bumper, I took some other stuff from Renault...

...

...i will put it on my car keys when the car gets on the road, i hope it brings me luck Smile

...a new grille, from gt turbo, and a new, clean renault badge from latest of mk1 Clio's

When all this was happening, I was working...and I had one mechanic working on my engine...well at least I thought he was working. He was doing some small jobs for extra money and my engine was sitting in his garage for 6 months...I called him, and there was some bad language talking over the phone, because I was pissed on how he's doing everything but mine...and before I gave him the engine, I made a website for his tuning shop, and I did it for free, so he pays me back with repairing my engine...

He finnaly opened it, and found that the engine block was cracked...I was crazy, knowing that the car was going out of the body shop soon, and I have no time on looking for the other engines since it was middle of July, and I was working like mad...

But, like Paul McCartney once said, I'll get by with a little help of my friends...

A friend of mine had this Volvo 480 turbo and 480 1.7i for spares...and he agreed on taking the engine put for me...

Two weeks after, the car was resprayed...I was in awe, and I still am, everytime I look at the car...I loved it when I looked at it getting out of the chamber...

I knew I picked the right color...it really suits the car...

Last look on my car, as I hurried for work, thinking about driving it trough curves and up the hill one day while the paint flashes so brightly and distracts cars behind me Smile

Another day off was spent to take the cables out of Volvo, because electrics in GTE were done by some guy for I don't know what reason, but it was a complete disaster...

I got an headache just by looking at this mess Smile

So, a couple more days passed, and the car was finnaly put together...

No front...

Complete front...

With new strips for the bumper...

Now, the real troubles occured...I was bound to put the engine in to catch one electrician who can sort out the loom and make the car run...I gave the car to my friend in his garage, but since he was also busy, he streched the work from one week to one month...After he done it, I hauled the car to friend's garage and all the filters, oils, brakes, discs, tubes and hoses were changed, so the car was serviced before it even could run Smile

Finally, the car went for the electrics part, and I knew that the GTE was going to run soon...it was the end of the summer season, so my hopes of cruising around with it didn't came to reality but that wasn't my first concerne anyway...

While waiting for electrics to get sorted, I went to Italy to buy lowering springs, and I got OMP red ones, with -40mm drop...I also got my favourite steering wheel, OMP Corsica, and I'm waiting for wheel hub to come...

One month later, the car was running...at 10 P.M. I went to electricians garage to pick up my car...since the mass was too bad, car started very poorly, and I don't know why he didn't sort that out, but I did it the next day...

The biggest problem was driving the car for 50 miles to get home, without licence plates on public roads trough the city...

...eventually I got home with no problems, parked the car in front and smiled...after 10 months, the car is finnaly home, up and running...

So, with some everyday working on the car, I installed the central locking, sorted the mass problem, fixed the air filter tube which was full of cracks and sucking air on all sides, put the wheels on...it still needs some work, I have to sort the water leaks and engine mounts which are worn out completly, and after that, I hope I'll get my licence plates...

So...here are some final pictures of my le cercuiel...

Plans for it are also simple...in the future, god willing I'll get my hands on some nice everyday driver, like Clio Sport, which I would like to own as soon as possible...and when that days comes, I'll put the GTE in the garage once more and give it a new life...probably F7P engine, but who knows, if I get my hands on Clio's 2.0 16V engine, it will go in...coilovers, and some serious wheels like Turini or maybe even something from Gotti, rollcage and that's it. I'll have a racer that I'll always wanted to have...and who knows, maybe I make my dream of racing it on hill climb in the N group...

So, that's about it, I hope you like this report, if the pictures don't look right, that's my fault, since I don't quite know how to handle the camera and also I have a lot of troubles capturing the car the way I want it, because when day is bright, the car reflects a lot and all of my pics are either overcontrasted or blurry...

Salute once more

:thumb:

UPDATE:

OMP lowering springs are in my room, I think I'll make myself move and put them this week on the car, also I ordered steering wheel hub for OMP Corsica, so that's another "update" soon to be made...also a little bit of music that I have is under reconstruction and that's about it...

Cool

Site Subscriber Joined: 13 Oct 2004 Posts: 4722

Dear god.

that is mint.

Retroholic Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 5685

Didn't read this yet but i will, top piccies tho!

Newbie Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 9

good tread....

its great to see a car be taken so far and not end up with some fibre glass tat body kit on.. looks Cool

is that running the 1.7 turbo EFI Volvo lump?

Site Subscriber Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 3547

Tidy!

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

Wow, now THAT is a report! Thumbs Up!

And WHAT a car! Shocked

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

wow! nice GTE!!

that car looks mint now, very well done indeed!

are you going to put the fog lights into the front bumper ?

Site Subscriber Joined: 05 Jan 2005 Posts: 569

Very very nice.

Newbie Joined: 20 Jan 2006 Posts: 12

well bugger me, top job!! stressfull but still top job!!

Retroholic Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 5685

Fantastic, just read the whole thing!

Quote:

I'm more into bargain hunting
then into being a 100% plonker

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 11:54 am

Nice

Level 1 User Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 39

hey lads, long time no read Smile

here are latest pics of my car...

[img:600:450:264c7671e6]http://www.hr-rpm.com/rpm_ftp/Riker/Ferrari/01.jpg[/img:264c7671e6]

[img:600:450:264c7671e6]http://www.hr-rpm.com/rpm_ftp/Riker/Ferrari/02.jpg[/img:264c7671e6]

[img:600:450:264c7671e6]http://www.hr-rpm.com/rpm_ftp/Riker/Ferrari/03.jpg[/img:264c7671e6]

[img:600:450:264c7671e6]http://www.hr-rpm.com/rpm_ftp/Riker/Ferrari/04.jpg[/img:264c7671e6]

[img:600:450:264c7671e6]http://www.hr-rpm.com/rpm_ftp/Riker/Ferrari/a.jpg[/img:264c7671e6]

[img:600:450:264c7671e6]http://www.hr-rpm.com/rpm_ftp/Riker/Ferrari/b.jpg[/img:264c7671e6]

[img:600:450:264c7671e6]http://www.hr-rpm.com/rpm_ftp/Riker/Ferrari/c.jpg[/img:264c7671e6]

[img:600:450:264c7671e6]http://www.hr-rpm.com/rpm_ftp/Riker/Ferrari/d.jpg[/img:264c7671e6]

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

looking good mate

Still running fine?

Level 1 User Joined: 25 Jan 2006 Posts: 39

she's running ok, but I had pretty bad accident yesterday, I was driving around and all of a sudden the car started to choke, I thought it's the fuel and the fuel pump again, tanked 15 ltrs, car started up normally, then after few miles same problem...

car didnt want to start...

so, i left the car in my mates garage...and today in the morning i had a perfect view to see...

another fuel leak! this time it isn't the tank, one of the hoses near the fuel rail unscrewed itself and pissed fuel all over the engine..

i guess i'm lucky...

can't wait to get my hands on valver to put it in...

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

nice, had a similar incident on a megane 2l 16V, the fuel rail has plastic clips to secure the lines to the rail, it wouldn't pull above 20mph, smelled petrol poppeed th ebonnet and fuel was pouring out of the rail in a fine spray everywhere!

Looked at the road and there was a long trail of fuel!

Just as well it was a cold start and never happened when it was hot.

Level 9 User Joined: 03 Jul 2006 Posts: 412

Riker, reading this article just made me for the first time ever appreciate the beauty of the R5
Very Happy

Retroholic Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 1000

i second that Tom.

i feel ashamed at my thread now.... Crying or Very sad

Level 5 User Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 113

Quality work buddy im liking it alot. wish my 5 was half as nice as yours. R5's rock!