PARIS (September 24, 2026) – Renault has revealed the Renault 8 Gordini Concept, a two-seat electric coupe that reinterprets one of the most celebrated performance cars in the brand’s history. The car is being unveiled today at the Renault Carwalk and will then appear on Renault’s stand at the Paris Motor Show, which runs October 12–18, 2026. It follows the R17 electric restomod created with Ora Ïto and the Renault 5 Diamant art car created with Pierre Gonalons. All of these one-offs are part of Renault’s broader effort to revive its heritage models over the past five years. Renault describes the concept as a pure design exercise and has confirmed it will not be sold. Instead, it is destined for the Renault Collections museum in Flins, which is scheduled to open to the public in about 15 months.

“With Renault 8 Gordini Concept, we wanted to spark emotion by drawing on both our heritage and modern times, bringing together the icons of yesterday and the future. This exercise in style sets out to reinvent Renault 8 Gordini for the modern day. The aim of this coupé is to inspire emotion and capture the imagination of all car enthusiasts. And when I talk about emotion, I’m not talking about nostalgia, but real passion for cars.”

– Alexandre Malval, VP Design, Renault

The Original “Gorde”
The Renault 8 Gordini arrived in 1964 with a 94-hp engine mounted at the rear and driving the rear wheels. It was quick, but it demanded skill from its driver, and it became a proving ground for a generation of racers, among them Jean Ragnotti. By putting the Gordini name on a sporty version of an everyday model, Renault brought serious performance within reach of ordinary buyers roughly a decade before the GTI craze, and the car’s twin white stripes became iconic. The name itself belongs to Amédée Gordini, the engine tuner known as “the wizard,” whose partnership with Renault began in 1957 with the Dauphine Gordini.

Designed Entirely In-House
Unlike the R17, which was a collaboration with an outside designer, the 8 Gordini Concept was designed entirely by Renault. The project began as an internal competition that drew more than 300 spontaneous sketches from Renault designers. Two proposals were built as 2:5-scale models, and the final design combines the best elements of both.

Rally-Car Proportions
Where the original was a four-door sedan, the concept is a two-door coupe measuring roughly 162″ long, 74″ wide, and 50″ tall. It rides on 19″ wheels up front and 20″ wheels at the rear, with a planted stance that recalls modern rally cars. The wide, sculpted rear end signals the rear-drive layout, and the body now sits with a slight rake that the original never had. According to Malval, the larger rear wheels are meant to give the car a sense of forward momentum while nodding to the rear-drive character that made the original so much fun to drive. Power comes from a 266-hp electric motor. Reports describe a carbon fiber body.

Café Racer Spirit
Renault took inspiration from the café racer movement in custom motorcycles, which strips vintage bikes down to their essentials. The same philosophy guided the Renault 5 Turbo 3E. On the 8 Gordini Concept, the old chrome side trim has become a feature line pressed into the bodywork. Many panel gaps have been eliminated, and the hood has no shut line because it lifts off in one piece, like a racing car’s.

A Game of References
Many of the original’s signature details return in modern form. The six round headlights recall the extra lamps of the rally cars, now set into a grille-less V-shaped nose, while the taillights sit so flush that they almost disappear when off. The squared-off wheel arches, the recessed waistline detail (now channeling air to a vent), the shell-shaped mirrors, the full-width grille at the base of the windshield, and the rear ventilation grille all carry over. The Gordini script has been reworked with the ridges of the original badge, and a new eight-segment “8” emblem joins it.

The paint reinterprets Bleu de France, the original car’s signature color. It uses a three-layer finish that combines mother-of-pearl with a blue-tinted binder, so the historic shade shows through along the body’s edges in the right light. The twin white stripes are no longer mere decoration. They now organize the design, with the windshield-base grille and the patterns inside the taillights aligned to them, and they continue across the top of the dashboard inside, shifting from white to blue.

A Minimalist, Driver-Focused Cabin
Inside, a horizontal strip of brushed aluminum replaces the traditional dashboard and carries a row of round digital displays, a modern take on the original Renault 8’s circular gauges. In keeping with the café racer theme, brushed aluminum stands in for plastic on the controls and large surfaces, contrasting with Alcantara upholstery. The stitching across the door panels evokes racetrack curbs. The bucket seats have blue corduroy centers, a nod to the flat, headrest-less seats of the original. The one splash of color on the dash is a red dot on a stopwatch button, underscoring Renault’s point that nothing in the cabin should distract from driving.