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The Renault Espace F1 is back!* | Top Gear

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*Sort of. Online render genius sketches a car that’d make MPVs cool again

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*Sort of. Online render genius sketches a car that’d make MPVs cool again

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*Sort of. Online render genius sketches a car that’d make MPVs cool again

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*Sort of. Online render genius sketches a car that’d make MPVs cool again

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Remember when people carriers were all the rage? An innocent, pre-SUV age, when the Renault Espace kick-started a Europe-wide love for big chunky seven seaters?

Perhaps those days could return if Renault did the decent thing and made this Espace F1 real. In short, it’s the current (really quite cool) Espace with the stickers, slicks and wings of Renault’s current RS18 Formula 1 challenger.

It’s the work of automotive concept designer Marco van Overbeeke (his Instagram is here), and we happen to think it looks spectacular. And more than good enough to make up for the slightly disappointing new Megane RS.

There’s so much carried over from the F1 car, with each piece of aero addenda faithfully stuck somewhere on the Espace’s bluff shape. We’re not sure how effective fins, diffusers et al are on something this size, but nor do we care. It’s marvellous.

Renault does actually have form in this area, and we’ve included pictures of the original, 1995 Espace F1 if you need a reminder. That car was a proper Renault project – barely any internet to host online renders back then, after all – which saw the wailing V10 engine from the Renault-Williams FW15C racecar shoehorned between a couple of rear seats.

It was so much more than that, though; the engine was actually tuned up, to nearly 800bhp, while the bodywork was bespoke carbon fibre and those seats special race items, eschewing all the flip-down practicality of an Espace road car.

So Renault, please give Marco a call and make this one happen. If you fancy nabbing one of those old V10s rather than the current F1 power units, we’ll be even happier…

Image: Marco van Overbeeke

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Remember when people carriers were all the rage? An innocent, pre-SUV age, when the Renault Espace kick-started a Europe-wide love for big chunky seven seaters?

Perhaps those days could return if Renault did the decent thing and made this Espace F1 real. In short, it’s the current (really quite cool) Espace with the stickers, slicks and wings of Renault’s current RS18 Formula 1 challenger.

It’s the work of automotive concept designer Marco van Overbeeke (his Instagram is here), and we happen to think it looks spectacular. And more than good enough to make up for the slightly disappointing new Megane RS.

There’s so much carried over from the F1 car, with each piece of aero addenda faithfully stuck somewhere on the Espace’s bluff shape. We’re not sure how effective fins, diffusers et al are on something this size, but nor do we care. It’s marvellous.

Renault does actually have form in this area, and we’ve included pictures of the original, 1995 Espace F1 if you need a reminder. That car was a proper Renault project – barely any internet to host online renders back then, after all – which saw the wailing V10 engine from the Renault-Williams FW15C racecar shoehorned between a couple of rear seats.

It was so much more than that, though; the engine was actually tuned up, to nearly 800bhp, while the bodywork was bespoke carbon fibre and those seats special race items, eschewing all the flip-down practicality of an Espace road car.

So Renault, please give Marco a call and make this one happen. If you fancy nabbing one of those old V10s rather than the current F1 power units, we’ll be even happier…

Image: Marco van Overbeeke

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*Sort of. Online render genius sketches a car that’d make MPVs cool again