At the end of the 1980s, a young French workshop set out to do to production cars what AMG was doing at Mercedes. Its first target: the Renault 25 V6 Turbo, whose PRV engine it pushed to nearly 240 bhp. A period report from the Turbo show (M6) brings it back to life.
In its heyday, the Turbo show on M6 devoted an “exclusive presentation” to a Renault 25 unlike any other: a V6 Turbo reworked by HAS. The archive resurfaced and the association shared it on its YouTube channel — a rare moving image of a car that few enthusiasts have ever seen in the metal.
CLICK TO PLAY — YOUTUBE IS ONLY LOADED AT THAT POINT
HAS was one of those small independent workshops that flourished at the end of the 1980s: take a well-built production car, rework the engine, the electronics and the chassis, and sell the result as a discreet, better-finished, far quicker alternative to the factory version. The model was AMG at Mercedes — the difference being that HAS worked on a French executive saloon, and outside any manufacturer catalogue.
Its first effort was this Renault 25 V6 Turbo, sold under the name “HAS Prestige”. Nothing about it was official: no Renault dealer ever ordered one, and the cars were built essentially to order.
The base is the 2,458 cc turbocharged PRV V6 (Z7U) of the Renault 25 V6 Turbo, rated at 182 bhp as standard. HAS reworked the turbocharger, the intercooler, the engine electronics and the running gear to reach around 240 bhp — a gain of about a third, on a saloon already regarded as one of the fastest of its day in France.
One point deserves emphasis, because the confusion is common: “HAS” is a tuner, not a factory version. A “Renault 25 V6 Turbo HAS” is a Renault 25 modified by HAS — Renault never sold such a model. The same goes for every name listed in our Tuners section.
With around ten cars built, the HAS Prestige has become one of those machines enthusiasts talk about far more often than they meet. The Renault 25 itself — a high-end saloon, a genuine grand tourer, never a sports car — disappeared entirely in 1992, replaced by the Safrane. Which makes each surviving HAS a small piece of PRV heritage.
One of them is in the association's hands: a phase 1 V6 Turbo HAS Prestige, presented in detail on the forum by its owner — photos, history and running condition included.
Do you own, or have you photographed, a HAS-prepared Renault 25? Any information helps refine this record — the exact number of cars built in particular. Get in touch through the Contribute page.
