Renault’s electric pocket monster may be heading for a very different kind of showroom: the Lego shelf. Which, depending on your finances, might be the more attainable option.
The French carmaker is backing a fan-built Lego version of the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, its 555hp electric “mini-supercar”, and is asking the public to support it through Lego Ideas.
The model is the work of British Lego designer Dave Collins, known online as devonbricks. His Renault 5 Turbo 3E uses roughly 1,200 pieces and took around 100 hours to create. It captures the car’s chunky haunches, squat stance and 1980s rally-car attitude in a form small enough to park on a desk.
The design has been submitted to Lego Ideas, where it needs 10,000 supporters before Lego reviews it for possible production. Renault is urging fans of the original Renault 5 Turbo, the new electric Renault 5 and Lego bricks in general to vote for it.
The real Renault 5 Turbo 3E is not exactly mass-market transport. Renault plans to build just 1,980 units, a nod to the original 1980 model, with prices starting at around £140,000 (RM746,000). Collins’ plastic version is, statistically speaking, the one most of us are likelier to own.
Collins, an engineer from Newton Abbot in Devon, started building his own Lego designs during lockdown in 2020. He said the Renault 5’s angular shape makes it a natural fit for Lego’s boxy geometry.
Renault’s backing does not guarantee the set will be made. Lego still has to approve it.
But if the votes come in and the review goes well, the Renault 5 Turbo 3E could complete a neat little journey: from wild French EV to build-it-yourself icon.
