THE MAXIS OF CARLOS SAINZ

Carlos Sainz, the famous Spanish driver, began his career with a Renault 5 TS. Thanks to Bernard Tramont, a former semi-official driver for Alpine and FASA Renault, Renault's subsidiary at Valladolid in Spain, he was quickly able to move up to the Group 4 R5 Turbo (VA 6658 I) and then an R5 TDC (VA 5060 I).
In spring 1985, he naturally took delivery of the Maxi 5 no. 704. The car was not registered straightaway, as it was not yet homologated in Spain. Until April 1986 it was driven with a temporary registration valid for six months, on red plates. Sainz competed in the first part of the 1985 season with his TDC. In June, he made his first outing with the Maxi 5 on the Rally Villa de Llanes, where his main opponent was Bruno Saby, driving a Peugeot T16. They fought hard, right up to the moment when the Spanish driver came off the road, seriously damaging the front of his car. The car was repaired and the second bodyshell, supplied as a kit, was fully assembled so that FASA could finish the 1985 season and start the next with two cars, as Renault Chartres, DIAC and Renault Sport had done, as Landon confirmed. It was a wise decision, as the Maxi was entered in October 1985 in the Rally San Froilán, which again ended in an accident! It was a painful start with the Group B car for the Spanish driver ...
In November, however, for the Rally Valeo Madrid, FASA entered a Maxi with a different temporary registration, 2M 3536P. This confirms that two cars were available, as the car damaged on the San Froilán was registered 2M 2527P and both numbers were valid during the second quarter, i.e. at the same time. Sainz finished third and was runner-up in the 1985 Spanish Rally Championship.
The new season began in February 1986 with the Rally Costa Brava, where the drivers were met with snow! FASA eventually obtained the car's homologation for road use in March and it was allocated the well-known registration number VA 4650 M and the chassis number PT 8220E 00001 (PT for prototype), which can be seen on the Maxi from Lohéac. Renault's chassis number VF1822100F0000704 was thus not used for this exceptional homologation granted by the Spanish authorities.
In 1986, Sainz competed in 15 rallies. On the Rally de Llanes on 1 June 1986, when he was in the lead with VA 4650 M, he skidded coming down the Fito on some worn-out tarmac and ran off the road, just as he had the previous year! He hit a tree trunk hard head-on. The front of the car was completely destroyed. Christian Pouchelon was present and confirmed the story. For Landon it was a miracle that Sainz escaped unhurt!
For the next rally, in the Canary Islands, the second car was used, as can be seen from its temporary registration from the first quarter of 1986, 2M 4747P. It had an air vent on the roof (which was present throughout the season until Group B was banned at the end of the year) and was forced to retire due to engine problems. For the rest of the season, Sainz used the second car (with a new temporary registration valid for six months from July 1986, 2M 5986P) and then the Maxi which had been damaged on the Rally de Llanes and had been rebuilt with a new bodyshell, making its reappearance in August registered VA 4650 M.
The strongest evidence that two Maxis were used came in November, when Sainz competed in three rallies: he drove in turn the car registered on temporary plates, then the car registered as a prototype and finally - for the last event of the season - once again the car on temporary plates, which had been serviced.
It is clear that for the 1986 season two Maxis were used. The Spanish FASA team did not want to incur any problems with the local authorities and therefore used the registration papers corresponding to each of the two cars. As we explained above, that was not always the case for some of the French teams, who used the same registration papers interchangeably for the two cars they had prepared. It seems very likely that the Maxi kept at the Manoir de l'Automobile was the car registered VA 4650 M used for the latter part of the 1986 season. The complete list of Sainz' entries with the Renault 5 Maxi can be consulted in the online version of the auction catalogue.
In 1986, Sainz won four rallies, came second on four occasions and retired six times, again finishing as runner-up in the Spanish Rally Championship.