GTP Cool Wall: Renault Espace F1

[BKGlover]

Renault Espace F1 nominated by rallymorten

Stats that Matter:
Status: Concept
Built: 2 known (1995)
Style: 5-Door MPV
Engine: Renault RS5 V10 (800 HP)
Transmission: 6-Speed Semi-Automatic
Layout: Mid-engine, Rear-drive
Note: Essentially a Williams F1 car wearing an Espace shell.

My Take: Leave it to the French, Matra specifically, to think of something like this, then do it properly. They took a lot of stuff off the Williams, the FW15C to be specific, and put it all in something that might look like an Espace maybe from a distance. Even so, it only balances out the big thing, it's still a minivan. Vans can be cool, MPVs can be cool, but minivans cannot be cool. All in all, I give it a meh.

Wikipedia Espace page


Nomination Thread​

 

[Leonidae@MFT]

Sub Zero. One of the two people carriers/vans you want to drive in anger, the other being the XJ220/Transit mule.

 

[High-Test]

Absolutely Sub-Zero. I've always had a soft spot for this thing.

 

[AudiMan2011]

Uncool. Williams took an Espace and made it completely unusable for road use. It's completely pointless to have a hyper-MPV that isn't road legal. Being basically an F1 car underneath doesn't do it justice.

 

[Liquid]

Cool.

An interesting exercise. Not a bad looker for an MPV, too.

 

[KinLM]

Would be sub-zero except its sorta pointless. But to have a minivan that's an F1 car underneath is just so unique that it's cool to me.

 

[Badasp5.0]

Absolutely Sub-Zero. I've always had a soft spot for this thing.

Agreed it is just NUTS. Sub zero.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

Cool. Too impractical to be sub zero, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[GranTurismo916]

Sub-Zero. This thing is just nuts, and it's actually a really good looking van.

 

[Bopop4]

Sub zero, just the concept of it is awesome.

inb4 the inevitable "You can't drive one" whining.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

How can a screaming minivan that looks like it's moving in fast forward be anything other than Sub Zero? I mean, it does 0-60 in LESS THAN 3 seconds! And it was our first taste of how driving an F1 feels like in Gran Turismo 2. I'd like to see this go up Pikes Peak and have a go at Loeb's record someday

 

[Sage Ages]

Uncool. Williams took an Espace and made it completely unusable for road use. It's completely pointless to have a hyper-MPV that isn't road legal. Being basically an F1 car underneath doesn't do it justice.

Thats the whole point, a unique vehicle that is supposed to defy sense-make. (Yes, thats a word. I invented it.)

 

[Roger the Horse]

There are only two cars as insane as this which I can think of. The Ford Nucleon and the Toyota TS020. The Ford Nucleon was so stupid and pointless that it didn't actually exist. Thus the Ford Nucleon was as seriously uncool as it gets. The Toyota TS020, on the otherhand, was a highly effective racing car (that never won a race for all manner of reasons, mainly tyres) which could theoretically also be driven by anyone with a drivers licence on the road. This wouldn't normally be cool, but the insanity of the TS020 combines with this to make it cool. This falls half way inbetween those two cars, but the Nucleon was so, so, seriously uncool that this is still seriously uncool.

 

[Liquid]

There are only two cars as insane as this which I can think of. The Ford Nucleon and the Toyota TS020.

The Ford Transit shell they mated to an XJ220 engine is pretty whack, too.

 

[Nicksfix]

An F1 inspired minivan, and an ugly one at that.

Seriously uncool

 

[NFSCARBON1]

A Renault Espace, stuffed with Formula One parts and technology, built for the sake of such a thing existing is cool.
The facts that it was built by three Formula One manufacturers, tested by Alain Prost and makes that noise makes it Sub Zero for me.

 

[rallymorten]

I have to say, this is one of the craziest concepts to date. Your average minivan paired with an F1 engine. Admitted, you very rarely see a cool minivan, but this one can give a Bugatti Veyron a run for it's money. Personally, I'll give it a Sub-Zero for the craziness of it, and the imaginations of peoples faces if you could say to them "I'm driving a minivan.. Renault Espace F1"

 

[Murcie_LP640]

Seriously Uncool, as it is pretty much "polishing a turd" taken to the extreme. It is still a Renault Espace in name and shape, and it looks like an absolute mess.

Not even going to mention the as yet unforeseen amounts of pointlessness attached to it.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

It's an Espace on steroids. Built with the best F1 technology around at the time and made it insanely fast. I only drove it once in GT2 and it was incredible. I vote cool.

 

[TheCracker]

*rolls his eyes at ANOTHER race car, only this time it's one that doesn't even race*

 

[daan]

*rolls his eyes at ANOTHER race car, only this time it's one that doesn't even race*

This.

The cool wall concept is being broken by all these race cars. Just the same as race cars cannot get their times on the power board, race cars cannot go on the cool wall.

 

[Liquid]

Perhaps we need a production cool wall and a race cool wall.

 

[homeforsummer]

Went for "cool".

As a car guy, absolutely sub-zero. But if you drove one down the street, with it making a racket and looking like a Halfords special, people would think you're a berk. So it's relegated to merely cool.

 

[ASH32]

This.

The cool wall concept is being broken by all these race cars. Just the same as race cars cannot get their times on the power board, race cars cannot go on the cool wall.

It's not even a cool wall anyway, it's a like wall, so it's not like having race cars ruins it anymore. I'm not sure how anyone can vote cars like this cool since they are pointless.

 

[KinLM]

It's not even a cool wall anyway, it's a like wall, so it's not like having race cars ruins it anymore. I'm not sure how anyone can vote cars like this cool since they are pointless.

Oh yeah! It isn't a cool wall. That title of "GTP Cool Wall" and the fact that it's clearly based off the Top Gear cool wall makes it a "like wall", not a cool wall!

Oh wait.

I would definitely argue that it's more than a like wall. I love this car but didn't vote it subzero because it's pointless and that isn't exactly cool.

 

[Cano]

if a car is pointless on purpose, it's really cool.

 

[homeforsummer]

It's not even a cool wall anyway, it's a like wall, so it's not like having race cars ruins it anymore. I'm not sure how anyone can vote cars like this cool since they are pointless.

Alternatively, some people are taking what's meant to be a bit of fun far too seriously...

Even if I do agree with you on the "like" wall thing. But I've got bored of explaining that bit so from here on in I'm just gonna vote on stuff regardless of how daft it is.

 

[nobuffalo]

Yeah, I don't really get how this cool wall thing works. Is it what I think is cool or what I think someone else will think is cool? I've read having to explain to someone why it's cool means it's uncool. I kinda get the logic behind that but at the same time it makes me not even interested in participating.

 

[homeforsummer]

Yeah, I don't really get how this cool wall thing works. Is it what I think is cool or what I think someone else will think is cool? I've read having to explain to someone why it's cool means it's uncool. I kinda get the logic behind that but at the same time it makes me not even interested in participating.

The only real explanation needed is that good cars aren't necessarily always cool, and bad cars aren't necessarily always uncool. Trouble then arises if people don't disassociate their fondness for a particular car from its coolness.

I tend to vote mostly on whether I think a car is cool or not, and then add or deduct points depending on whether Average Joe on the street might think I'm cool or a bit of a knob for driving it. If you think a car is cool but the world hates you for driving it, it probably isn't as cool as you'd think.

Hence my Espace vote above. I think it's cool (rare, F1 engineering, completely barmy etc), but if you drove it down the street people not into cars would wonder why you'd painted an MPV gold and put a fart cannon on it...

 

[Joey D]

I vote on whether or not I think the car is cool, and like hfs, add or subtract points based on how others might see it.

With that said I find the Espace F1 to be cool. F1 on its own is seriously uncool and minivans on their own are seriously uncool too, but put them both together and it sort of works in a weird Frankenstein sort of a way. Plus it's a vehicle that was built for the sake of answering a question no one asked, and at times that can be cool.