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The Fallen Stars Renault Espace F1

  • 24 September 2022
  • 3 min read
  • 6 images
The Fallen Stars Renault Espace F1 image

It didn’t take long for Ford’s idea to transform its Transit into Supervans, complete with a racing engines to enhance and promote its victories, to be imitated: in 1994, to celebrate two Formula 1 World Titles and 20 years of success of the Espace model, Renault presented an authentic and decidedly captivating monster. 

1-V10-Renault-World-Champion-car-1024x679 The racing set-up of a single-seater, the same engine used in the V10 Renault World Champion car, but the car is nothing more than a heavily disguised MPV

It was an Espace, identical to the one made for daily use, but it had a carbon fibre shell and bodywork instead of fiberglass, and the Formula 1 V10 mounted centrally in the chassis at the expense - but what use would they have had for that? - of the space to comfortably accommodate passengers!

2-V10-Renault-World-interior-1024x668 The racing set-up of a single-seater, the same engine used in the V10 Renault World Champion car, but the car is nothing more than a heavily disguised MPV

Already mightily impressive on the outside with its racing set-up, the large slick tyres and the very evident air intakes and exhausts, the Espace F1 had a unique peculiarity: its engine, mounted inside the passenger compartment, with the unobstructed air intakes guaranteeing a truly unrepeatable sound experience for the lucky occupants. For many don’t know this, but it’s the air intakes that give engines their most beautiful and exciting notes.

3-Renault-espace-1024x668 The origin is the same, the Espace, but the remake makes the F1 MPV decidedly different!

Built at Matra, the Renault Group company that had been producing the Espace since the early 80s, it produced somewhere north of 800 horsepower and was capable of accelerating from zero to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds, with a top speed of 312 km/h. Among the many innovations introduced was the six-speed, semi-automatic sequential gearbox, controlled by the steering wheel and introduced by Ferrari in racing in 1989. 

4-V10-Renault-World-F1-1024x672 Movement at the paddock: what faired Formula 1 car is this?

5-V10-Renault-World-dream-1024x668 Dream wheels, racing air intakes, spoilers. Who wouldn’t want to have tried it?

6-V10-engine-Espace-F1-1024x679 Perfect mix: the Williams FW16 World Champion, its V10 engine and the Espace F1 that welcomes it

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