One of the things I love about collecting Hot Wheels is being exposed to cars (and car brands) that I would never even be interested in otherwise. #Renault — the French automaker — is one of them. In recent years, I have learned more and more about their rally racing heritage thanks to Hot Wheels #Car Culture, but it’s their grand touring race car that has me blown away.

Renault Sport is a division of #Renault. Let’s get that out of the way. So this isn’t your average car. This division is the performance division, and the #Renault Sport R.S. 01 was never built to see your average road. It was built for the one-make, Renault Sport Trophy, but after the series folded in 2016, the cars went on to race in Group GT3. I’m not entirely sure how they skirted around the homologation rule, but that isn’t the focus here.

The Hot Wheels #Renault Sport R.S. 01 caught my eye from the very first release in 2016. It debuted in the #HW Exotics Series in the mainline and continues to be released in basics to this day. This is one of those Hot Wheels that begs for a premium release, but as of now, the Super #Treasure Hunt is the only variant to wear #Real Riders — and that’s as premium as it gets, for now.

One of the things that really made this model stand out to me was it’s low stance. In 2016, we were still seeing race cars designed with up-sloped front chins and higher ground clearances to help with their orange track performance. We even saw a few designed with adjustable front chin spoilers to help mitigate that. 2016 is one of those model years that will stand out to me as we saw not only the #Renault Sport R.S. 01 buck that trend, but also the #Lamborghini Huracan LP 620-2 Super Trofeo and Porsche 911 GT3. The Hot Wheels Design Team began making a concerted effort to bring scale car enthusiasts awesome replicas that doubled as toys.

Given the limitations of producing a car for the Hot Wheels mainline — number of parts, pillar thickness, only so many tampo passes, etc. — it is hard to produce quality #Exotics. Yet, Hot Wheels Designer, Ryu Asada managed to do so like he did so many times during his relatively short time with the Hot Wheels brand. It is why he was, and continues to be, a legend in the eyes of Hot Wheels collectors.

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Using shutoffs in the casting body is one way to achieve color breaks — limiting the number of tampo passes a Hot Wheels car needs. We see it more frequently now, but several years ago, Ryu did it with the #Renault Sport R.S. 01 when it wasn’t very prevalent in diecast design. The color you see on the doors is the interior piece showing through. The ABS plastic offers a nice dull luster that contrasts well against metalflake and glossy paint.

One of the things I’ve always admired about the graphics on every release of the #Renault Sport R.S. 01 thus far is the commitment to tampo the windshield banner/visor, the side vents, and the sides of the rear spoiler. That commitment was initiated with the #2016 New Models releases in yellow and silver and has been carried forward to this day.

All that aforementioned detail comes with a cost however. Where the releases of this casting really lack is front detail. Beyond the hood should be a huge Renault “diamond” logo in silver. The rest of the front end should pretty much be black if we are following the look of the 1:1 car. Should this casting ever get bumped up to premium, the capabilities of direct ink-jetting the graphics will help out the front of this vehicle immensely as none of the 11 variants thus far have had that needed detail.

The #Renault Sport R.S. 01 is one of the few castings to be used in both a #Forza segment and a #Gran Turismo segment.

So far there have been three #5-Pack Exclusives of the #Renault Sport R.S. 01. You can see all 3 below.

That’s it for the #Renault Sport R.S. 01 collection for now: 11 variants in total — all of the basic variety. Hopefully the day comes where we do see this casting venture over to premium since it is such a strong casting design already.

QUICK LINK! Complete your Renault Sport R.S. 01 collection on eBay!

Please note that OTD is part of the eBay Partner Network (EPN). OTD will receive affiliate compensation from the EPN thanks to readers like you clicking on the above link and purchasing items. Think of it as a great way to support OTD!