Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: Renault Fuego Turbo – A Unicorn Found In Minnesota

Only a couple of days after Hannes showed us one in Berlin, these shots of one found in Minnesota were posted by Chris Irber. I’ve been hoping to find a Fuego forever, but no luck so far. And this isn’t just a plain old Fuego—as if there was such a thing—it’s a Turbo!

This Fuego keeps interesting company. Two white coupes, but worlds apart.

The Fuego was based on the R18 platform, with front suspension components borrowed from the larger R20/30. It has several bragging rights, one of them being its very slippery body, with a Cd as low as 0.32, very impressive for the time (1979). With a turbo-diesel, it was the world’s fastest diesel production car in 1982, with a top speed of 180km/h (110 mph). It also had the first remote keyless system with central locking, based on the invention of Paul Lipschultz (PLIP system).

 

The 1565cc Cleon-Alu hemi-head turbocharged pushrod four made a mighty 107 hp!  Don’t laugh; that was pretty heady stuff in 1982!

This was of course during the time when Renault’s turbo V6 was the terror of F1. It had pioneered turbocharging, and its 1.5 L V6 made over 1,000 hp in qualifying tune.

Here’s the somewhat milder Fuego Turbo in action. The naturally-aspirated 1647 cc SOHC four made 81 hp.

The boat across the street looks to be quite vintage too.

Looks like it’s here for the duration.