HEAR the word ‘supercar’, and your brain is most likely sent off in the direction of high-performance exotics from Ferrari, Lamborghini or Bugatti. However, if you were browsing auto advertisements 50 years ago, it wouldn’t be long before you stumbled across one for Renault’s new small model, in cute cartoon form, claiming that its latest creation was the “supercar” to rule them all.
That car was, of course, the 5 – and in terms of its success, it certainly proved to be as super as anything Renault produced before – or pretty much since. The brand claimed the 5 could do it all: “A car for all seasons, for holidays and for work, for weekdays and for weekends, for town and for country.” Or, to give it the snappier French tagline,…