Renault 15/17 - Motorsport

Motorsport

Renault abandoned plans to contest the World Rally Championship which it won in 1973. Instead, the factory developed a high-performance version of the 17 coupé at the Alpine Competition Factory which used many of the A110 bits to compete in "selected" European events. The Gordini-developed engine had two twin-choke Webers, a hot cam, an 11.5 compression ratio, big valves and tuned extractor exhaust system. The body was very light, featured fibreglass doors, boot and bonnet panels, plus plastic windows and a stripped interior. The factory said the car's weight was lowered by more than 25 percent.

Its most famous outing was the "Press-on-Regardless" WRC in the United States, in Michigan, 1974. The Rally was the USA section of the World Rally Championship. The car that won the rally was a Renault 17 Gordini driven by Jean-Luc Thérier and Christian Deiferrer, with a similar car coming third.