Back in the mid-90s, Renault decided that celebrating the tenth anniversary of its Espace MPV wasn’t enough with balloons and cake. No, they wanted fireworks, so they built a minivan with the heart of a Formula One car. The result was the Espace F1, a machine so outrageous it still feels like a fever dream.
This wasn’t a tuned-up people carrier. Underneath its carbon-fiber body panels sat a bespoke monocoque chassis and, bolted in the middle, a 3.5-litre Renault RS5 V10 engine straight out of the Williams FW15C that dominated the 1993 F1 season. That meant nearly 800 horsepower screaming to 14,000 rpm, funneled through a six-speed semi-automatic gearbox to the rear wheels. Forget school runs, this thing could hit 100 km/h in under three seconds and top out at over 310 km/h. In a van.
The interior was just as mad. Four racing buckets, the engine visible through clear panels behind the rear seats, and absolutely no concessions to comfort. It was a family car only in the sense that four people could technically fit inside, if they didn’t mind sitting next to a V10 with ear plugs in…
Renault unveiled the Espace F1 at the 1994 Paris Motor Show, and later let it loose on track at Magny-Cours with F1 driver Éric Bernard at the wheel. Alain Prost even had a go. Watching a boxy MPV carve corners at 2 g of lateral force was surreal, but that was the point: this was a rolling statement of intent, a celebration of engineering audacity.
Renault built two of them. One was a fully functional prototype capable of delivering every ounce of its F1 fury on the track. The other was a static display model, a showpiece for exhibitions and motor shows, ensuring the legend could be admired even when it wasn’t screaming down a straight.
The car you see on these photos is the static display model. I found it during a recent visit to the Pace Museum by JP Performance in Dortmund, Germany.
This static model, owned by Renault and part of the Renault collection at Flins in France, was built with less focus on engineering and more on presentation. Its chassis is nothing more than a wooden board, but visually it mirrors the drama of the real thing. The front bumper features central air intakes flanked by smaller aluminum ducts, and the wheels differ from the running prototype
Two rotating orange lights sit on the sides of the rear wing, a leftover from the idea of using it as a Formula 1 safety car. Inside, it has four seats upholstered in light yellow fabric to match the body color. This static version even starred in press photos at Mortefontaine, alongside the Williams FW13 and the Renault Espace II, cementing its place as part of Renault’s boldest chapter.
And if you’ve never seen one in real life, chances are you’ve driven it virtually. I know I did on my Playstation 26 years ago. The Renault Espace F1 became a cult favorite in the Gran Turismo series. In the game, just like in reality, it was hilariously fast and terrible around corners.
Today, the Espace F1 remains one of the most extreme concept cars ever built, a glorious collision of practicality and pure motorsport insanity. It’s proof that sometimes, the best way to celebrate an anniversary is to throw the rulebook out the window and build something nobody asked for, but everyone remembers.