Renault 8 Gordini Concept Rebuilds a 1964 Rally Hero as an Electric Two Seater

Sixty two years after Amédée Gordini fitted a hotter 1.1 liter four cylinder and twin Weber carbs to a modest rear engine Renault sedan, the same badge sits on a low, wide two seat coupe that never has to share its garage with a production schedule. Renault showed the one off on September 24 at its Carwalk event and will park it on the Paris Motor Show stand from October 12 to 18 before it heads to the new Renault Collections museum in Flins.

The original 1964 Renault 8 Gordini cars had an appearance that is still memorable today: four or six lamps, a low-slung stance, additional brakes, and that utterly classic Bleu de France paint with white stripes. They went on to win the Tour de Corse and several other European rallies because their rear-mounted engine and tiny lightweight body made them “honest” on mountain roads, as opposed to just “looking good in a brochure,” as some vehicles do. Renault’s designers submitted almost 300 concepts for this resurrection, and the two ideas were combined to create the automobile you see today.

The real car measures 4.12 meters long, 1.88 meters wide, and 1.27 meters tall, with 19-inch front wheels and 20-inch rear wheels that appear to be leaning into a turn. The nose is V-shaped, with six round LED lights integrated into the bodywork, reminiscent of the original rally spec lights. When the car is turned off, the taillights blend into the bodywork, which is rather cool. You get flying buttresses, a short little roof spoiler, a rear vent, and a wide diffuser in the back, as well as white stripes that don’t look like decals, but are actually part of the body, running all the way along the base of the windshield, through the lamps, and even across the dash board, changing color from white to blue as they enter the cabin.

Under the hood, a single rear-mounted motor produces 270 horsepower and drives the back wheels, exactly like the first Gordini did. Concept chief Roman Gauvin has been clear that this car exists to celebrate the name, not to chase a Nürburgring time or fill a price list. He called the original 8 a working class hero and said the new shape stays approachable, small, and nimble on purpose

Inside the car, six circular digital dials sit on a brushed aluminum strip, much like the previous analog gages did on a metal panel. The bucket seats have blue corduroy centers and black trim, and they are set into a lovely piece of Alcantara on the door. There’s a nice metal console with appropriate switches and, of course, a large red stopwatch button in the center of the dashboard, as well as a rather neat small rally plate in the footwell. According to one of the designers, they went to great lengths to keep the part count as minimal as possible so that every single surface could do two functions at once.

Alexandre Malval, Renault’s design director, hoped to get people excited by combining yesterday’s icons with today’s best ideas, rather than ending up in a sea of nostalgia. One of the designers, Thomas Altet, painted the car in three coats, resulting in mother of pearl and a blue tinted varnish that allows the ancient Bleu de France to shine through at the margins when the light hits it.