This car was actually Olivia's. In fact it was really her Mum's but we inherited it when Olivia moved down to Essex. It was very reliable except for one notable occasion in Bracknell when it broke down on a roundabout in rush-hour (old fashioned points out of adjustment).
Despite performance not being it's strong suit, it was used on a couple of Chelmsford Motor Club 12 car rallies to reasonably good effect (see results). When subject to motorsport pressures, the french interior build quality did show up weaknesses. The front seat weren't really design for holding big lads in place while rally driving - and the frames on both seats broke at different times and had to be welded back together. One particular event with Tony Michael on the LHS got quite amusing as the seat was so loose we kept bumping into each other in the car. In 1998 it also performed rather well at the JCP grass autotest finishing 2nd in class and 3rd overall. It would have been even better had it stayed wet, but the surface dried out in the afternoon and more powerful cars gained an advantage.
It met its end when it was tail ended and shunted into the car in front. No serious damage as you can see (the shunting car came off very badly), but not worth bothering repairing when a 205 GTI could be bought with the insurance money!!
Renault 5 1.1 TL - D351NET