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.
I havent seen a Fuego for what seems decades, Renault as a brand seems quite rare here now.
I have to guess that I might have seen a Fuego around 1992 or 1993. I arrive at that figure because it´s seven years after production ceased and 98% of them would have been disposed of by then. I am nearly certain I have not seen one since then. I´d have remembered it like an Elvis sighting.
It is good looking car though – and compared to a Manta or Capri, a lot more modern. Renault tried a coupe version of the Laguna about 10 years ago and that also flopped, due apparently to dreadful suspension. It looked superb though.
Throw a rock in the 80s and you’d hit one in Australia. Cypriot Diplomat’s son had one at college in ‘82. Had girlfriend(s). Bastard.
Thats probably where I saw one last OZ they were popular for some reason.
3 for sale in Oz right now, mostly dungers, but this one is interesting:
https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/1985-renault-fuego-gtx-manual/SSE-AD-6901574/?Cr=0
They were common in the Waikato through the 80s and 90s Bryce – must have been a good dealer! A friend’s flatmate had two in 1998ish – one worked and the other one kept the first one working… Last saw one in the metal in Hamilton last month. Silver of course. There are usually one or two on Trade Me in various states of decay.
That’s quite the find, more like the Cohort Pic(k) of the month…I too can’t quite recall the last Fuego I saw anywhere although they certainly were interesting. The early ’80s were the hotbed of smaller coupes and hatchbacks and this one doesn’t really even have much of the french “weirdness” in the looks department, it’s fairly attractive, certainly no worse than the 200SX, Scirocco, Celica, and even the Fox Mustang. Maybe if Renault had been in IndyCar it would have done better, the US just hasn’t been into F1.
It also seems to have mostly escaped the rust monster, no mean feat for a Minnesota car. Amazing.
It’s likely escaped that rust monster because it’s been sitting in a garage for decades; you can’t see it in the pics, but I laughed in my head and said “of course” when I noticed the road tax tags on the plates. They expired in March, 1990.
This is the same guy where I found the Singer Vogue. He’s always rotating out vintage stuff (Hence the Caddy in the back). I drive by every now and then just to see what new rare contraption he may have found.
Aha; that’s you! Congratulations; what a find.
I don’t know if it’s crazier to not have rusted or to have been kept in a garage for 31 years without repairing it or doing whatever it needed to get back on the road!
I remember being interested in a Fuego on CL a decade or so ago. It looked good, and seemed to be in, all things considered, decent mechanical condition. After a bit of research I decided that my punishment gluttony had limits, surprisingly.
Minnesota. Land of 10,000 lakes, and one Renault Fuego.
Definitely a rare find-back in the early 80’s a couple I knew had one, I think they traded it in on a Chevy S-10 pickup. That’s the last one I saw, although come to think of it I have not seen any Renaults in this country for years. After Chrysler took over AMC in 1987 all Renault vehicles seemed to disappear overnight.
Back in the day (early ’80s) my wife’s cousin in Minnesota (female in her 20s) had a Renault 15. It was, for all intents, the predecessor to the Fuego. The car was rare even then especially in the land of Oldsmobile Cutlasses and Ford Escorts.
The cousin’s last name wasn’t Koop was it? I worked with a girl who had one during that time.
Doubly lucky to have avoided both rust and self immolation (70s and 80s Renaults were notorious for electrical fires)
Trivia note, the PLIP system was infrared and in the early oughts could be “hacked” by the IR LED from a TV remote and the right software. My cirac 2002 Compaq Ipaq actually had a universal TV remote and could be programmed to run all sorts of IR controlled kit.
With a name like “Fuego”, one can’t claim non-disclosure when the thing self immolates.
I worked with a guy back in ’90 who had one; some days he came to work around a half hour late. In a cab.
It was red with grey interior and a manual. Which he couldn’t drive without slipping the clutch. So within the year he drove it he fried the clutch, then the electrical gremlins hit hard and he parked it outside the garage for the tin-worms to devour.
What was once a recent new car, had devolved into frazzled hopes and dreams of F1 adventure.
Did anyone else notice the log chain on the ground under the front bumper; yeah it surely did not drive here on it’s own.
Ahh, the French. Surely they must have a phrase spoken in tones of elusive romance amid dismal searchings for a ‘returned Lover’. Reverberating with inflections of angst mixed with fleeting moments of glee ~
Not that it matters, but the later ones with a revised interior (different dashboard and speakers) and the new (I think) 2.2 non-turbo engine were probably a lot better. Maybe they had fixed the electrical connector problem that doomed a lot of them, even the ones that didn’t catch fire.
Anyway I really wanted one of those back then a couple years after they ended, but even in the Bay Area there were very, very few used ones around. One woman was advertising just the one I wanted (2.2, leather, sunroof, automatic) for some time (pre-Craiglist free to pick up Advertiser classifieds), but wanted the price Kelly Blue Book calculated (it was VW Scirocco equivalent money), which no one was paying. I don’t know if she gave up or what, but if she had come down on the price (I tried) I would have bit and become a very proud Fuego owner, for however long that would have lasted.
I of course was planning on removing all that stripey tape all over the American versions. Oh well.
I wish I had caught a Fuego in Tokyo! But I believe you’re thinking of Berlin, the other member of the Pact of (rusty) Steel…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cc-global/curbside-classics-from-neukolln-and-charlottenburg-wilmersdorf-berlin-part-4-the-americans-the-french-vw-and-some-cars-from-the-mistery-garage/
Of course. It’s another way that I screwed up this post; Jim Klein had to point out that it was a Turbo version.
This is what happens when you get old and spend all day building stairs for a new deck and then try to put something up at CC in the evening: excessive tiredness, physical and mental.
I recommend not getting old.
Getting old is better than the alternative.
It´s a wierd firm. Renault make fairly popular cars; some of them are very pleasant to look at. The Fuego was designed by Opron and stands out as one of Renault´s finer efforts. Yet nealry nobody wants to keep them for a long time. Renault makes cars few fall in love with. If Opel or VW had made this car it´d have a fanclub on each continent. Does anyone have an idea why this might be? Another great design from the same period was the later R25 which is a rigourously executed as Audi´s cars of the same time. Ford´s Granada and Opel´s Rekord/Senator were good but not as well done as the R25, inside and out. Again, nobody cares about the R25 whereas people chase after baggy Grannies and rusty Rekord and saggy Senators. Odd.
“…Does anyone have an idea why this might be?”
Yes, however with respect to K9s everywhere simply performing their biological function and in keeping with the say something nice or nothing at all philosophy, there will be no comment.
»zonk« Really?…! I had no idea. The Brits say “plipper” for keyfob remote, but I had no idea there’s an actual PLIP involved. I thought it was just a randomly made-up word, the way my folks used to call the garage door opener remote the “beeper”.
Big UK article on the origins of the plipper here.
Is that why the car horn goes “plip” when you set the alarm with your key fob button?
I can’t imagine how impressive the first remote entry fob must have been in 1979. No more having to put a key into the door key hole! It’s the future, here, now!
Test drove a Fuego back in the day, surprised how strong the engine seemed/screamed when the turbo kicked in…
We had an ’84 Fuego 2.2 5 speed for a number of years – it was a special car, with maybe the most comfortable seating position of any car I have owned. It had a fantastic ride too. It used to get 33 mpg at 75-80 mph. That engine / trans combo was wonderful. We bought it used for $4k with 30k miles on it, and it made it to 85k until it basically fell apart. I put 10k on that car in three months and loved it. I still miss it!
Definitely not for anyone looking for Toyota reliability, but car lovers know sometime the love of driving must come before practicality!
Reposting comment from 2017: Still miss my Canadian-spec 1984 Fuego, with its smooth and efficient Bosch injected 2165 cc engine. Comfy seats, fine handling, and a working electric, canvas sunroof! Except for some wonky taillight wiring, totally reliable. Bought from original owner after she couldn’t find a blower motor.
Found one through the Renault Owners Club of North America.
I suppose this should have been a loved car, but it just hadn’t. I dated a Francophile who owned one and I had a few chances to drive hers, and it wasn’t a bad car – it was just, um, different, in a trying-too-hard-to-be-different, sort of way. We parted ways while she still had it, so I don’t know what she ended up doing with it.
I don’t remember another car that had a plush dashboard like these. It just seemed odd. It was covered with some kind of a crushed velvet material that never seemed clean. Then there was the odd beltline, which was too low, even by 1980s standards. It was comfortable, and it could scoot, but hmmm, there was always something oddly different about it that never made me a fan. I really liked her, but not so much her car. I normally like French things, but there is just something about a Renault, that doesn’t complete the sale for me.
In 1992 I bought a 1979 Omni coupe for $1500. Around the same time, my best friend Cal bought a 1982 Fuego for $1500.
The differences between the two vehicles was stark. The Fuego was smooth, modern, quick, comfortable, while the Omni was outdated and slow. I let jealousy and regret get the better of me, not knowing any better. I could have had THAT for the same price?
After about six months, Cal offered the car to me for $1200. I asked my dad if this was a good idea, and he took the Fuego for a test drive. He came back and said “That thing drives like a piece of JUNK!”. This surprised me, but I nevertheless took a pass on the Fuego.
About a month later, I filled in for Cal at his pizza delivery job for one night, borrowing the Fuego. The electrical system had become fried somehow, and the smell of rotten eggs was overwhelming. The radiator leaked. The engine leaked. The vehicle was done.
Thanks for saving me the grief, Dad.
Such beautiful cars. Watching that minute-long video that Daniel Stern posted above, I remembered for a split-second how excited I used to get to spot these new in traffic. And then, there was that Spanish name on a French car that made it seem so international.
I saw this interesting article in French about the Fuego who was popular in Argentina where it was made until 1992.
https://www.carjager.com/blog/article/renault-fuego-gta-max-la-meilleure-des-fuego-atmo.html
You guys need to get to Carlisle. I keep telling myself that, between Carlisle, the Curtis museum and Watkin’s Glen, I could make the trip worthwhile.
Nick sold his Fuego a few years ago. iirc, it was a phase 2, with the 2.2, sunroof and updated instrument cluster.
Marv took his Fuego to Carlisle too.
Lived in Minnesota my whole life. I recall seeing a Fuego very similar to this once in the early 90’s and I’m pretty sure it’s the same one.
One of my best friends had one of these. Seemed reliable enough and four of us used it for a 1000 + mile road trip. That was probably its best use case – very comfortable in that French way that somehow combines the floaty ride of a large American sedan with decent handling. The turbo motor was quite refined for the time, without the sometimes egregious torque steer and turbo lag that was still common in front drive turbo cars back then. I’m guessing parts were never that easy to find and may well be impossible now. Of course Renault is a huge presence outside North America so maybe parts can still be found elsewhere.